This year, the Summer Solstice occurs on Thusday, 20th June at 9:50 pm
It’s a bittersweet time, representing both the longest day of the year – maximum daylight hours – and, for anyone who hasn’t experienced winter in the UK, looking ahead to dark mornings, dark evenings and minimal daylight in-between.
The summer solstice or ‘aestival solstice’ occurs when one of Earth’s poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the summer solstice is the day with the longest period of daylight and shortest night of the year, when the Sun is at its highest position in the sky.
At either pole there is continuous daylight at the time of its summer solstice. The opposite event is the winter solstice.
Here in the UK, hundreds of people congregate at Stonehenge to witness the event.
Happy Summer Solstice Day! The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy. Happy Litha! Let every dawn be to you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its close.
