Summer Solstice

By Walter Kish

This weekend marks the Summer Solstice, or that day of the year when we have the maximum amount of daylight.  The amount of daylight we receive varies throughout the year because the Earth’s axis is not perpendicular to the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, but is tilted by an angle of approximately 23.44 degrees.  As the Earth travels around the Sun on its annual orbit, the axis shifts its position relative to the Sun so that the Northern Hemisphere is facing more towards the Sun during the summer and further away during the winter, creating both the seasons and the variations in the amount of daylight we receive throughout the year.

Of course, for most of us this is but a bit of trivia on our calendar, but for our ancestors whose lives depended on the crops they sowed and reaped, understanding the seasonal cycles of the Earth was a matter of survival.  Knowing when to plough and plant was crucial, and the optimal dates for these were derived from a thorough understanding of astronomical phenomena which included being able to determine the precise dates for the solstices (in June and December), the equinoxes (in March and September), as well as the phases of the Moon.  These became intertwined with mythology and religion and spawned a host of festivals and rites that go back to prehistoric times.

The Summer Solstice is probably one of the most ancient and widely celebrated days of the year.  The earliest written reference in Ukrainian history is in the Hypatian chronicles dated 1262 AD.  However, archaeologists claim an even earlier reference dating to the 4th Century AD on a calendar found on a piece of pottery near the Dnipro River in an area inhabited by the Slavic Polianian tribe. 

In pre-Christian times, it was usually a celebration of nature’s fertility, with rituals and sacrifices aimed at encouraging not only bounteous crops for the coming year, but also encouraging human procreation.  The young men and women of the village would engage in games and rituals that centred on finding an appropriate mate.  Nearby woods would be scoured for magical herbs and flowers.  It was said that on the Summer Solstice, the trees and animals were granted the power of speech and magic abounded everywhere.

Large bonfires would be built usually near the banks of a river or pond around which the youth would dance, pair off and leap together through the flames.  Leaping through the fire was intended to purify one for the coming harvest season and endow the individual with health and power.  Girls would weave garlands of flowers and send them floating on the waters, divining their fate and fortune according to the course the garlands would take on the water.  The solstice was also traditionally the first day of the year on which it was permissible to bathe and swim in the rivers, lakes and ponds, and the young people usually did so.  I hesitate to add that there were no such things as swim suits in those days.

Of course, with the advent of Christianity, the Church transformed the Solstice into a religious holiday named after St. John the Baptist (traditionally observed July 7), and suppressed the more pagan and hedonistic aspects of the original.  The celebrations, now known as the festival of Ivana Kupala, still however incorporate many of the original rituals though in a tamer form. 

Ivana Kupala is widely celebrated throughout Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.  In Poland, there is a similar celebration under the name Sobotki.  In most Christian countries, originally pagan summer solstice festivals have been subsumed into the Feast Day of St. John the Baptist.  In Quebec of course, we know this as St. Jean Baptiste Day which has been a statutory public holiday and observed June 24 in the Province since 1925.

Throughout Europe, the Summer Solstice is also widely celebrated and is known more commonly as Midsummer’s Eve. Bonfires and magic figure prominently in most of the traditions surrounding this day.  Shakespeare made it the theme of one of his most famous plays A Midsummer Night’s Dream and each year on the Solstice, modern “pagans” gather at Stonehenge to greet the Sun on the longest day of the year.

To most of us modern and well educated types, such celebrations may appear quaint or primitive.  Yet, somehow, as I get older, I tend to look upon them with a more benevolent and sympathetic perspective, finding in their symbolism a powerful tie to nature, my ancestors and my personal history.  I don’t know about you, but I will find a meaningful way to celebrate Ivana Kupalo on this Summer Solstice.