„The days are already getting shorter“, I tell my witch, as we once again hurry to fall asleep before sunrise, after a long night of witching discussions, as the horizon is already painted in a faint red.
„You‘ve promised to take me apple picking for years now“, my witch complains and I roll my eyes.
She is right. Especially the last autumn, I did not really celebrate. Or enjoy.
That may be because I more and more need the long days and am already dreading the moment when darkness clearly grows.
That being said, this post is to celebrate the longest day of the year!
Do you have special memories about it?
Midsummer night? Solstice? Whatever you may call it?
My first memory of recognizing this night as something special is very old. I must have been about six years old and was spending the summer at the Baltic Sea with my grandparents. Anyone must have told me how this night was special, because I had successfully convinced my grandmother to let me stay awake and watch the sunset from the window directly under the roof. When it had fully set and was completely dark, I still did not want to go to sleep, because this night was so special and I wanted to see what it looked like in a few hours more! At some point of that discussion however, I must have fallen asleep. And slept so long, I did not see the sunrise after those very few hours of darkness.
Back then, I did not understand what was so special about this night. I only knew that summer had started, which meant playing outside for much longer and wearing light clothes, which made it all easier
This night felt special, no doubt!
It is so special because the sun is in its highest position towards earth. Earth has reached such an extreme angle that this day has the most hours of sunlight of them all. At least, if you live in the northern hemisphere! I once told this a friend who lives much closer to the equator, and he was stressed out by our variety in daylight!
It is so reassuring to know that the planets and stars are going to repeat their movement year after year, isn‘t it? There are these long days, when finding sleep is tough! Then, the days become shorter and reach a point where day and night are equally long, only to drop into the other extreme of very long nights. For me personally, it is the most magical feeling when in the last weeks of winter, the sunlight is becoming stronger, and the horizon glows more often! A sunset in February is already promising for the world to wake up, to feel warm and to grow again.
Seeing these patterns and making use of them has been of great meaning for humans for many thousands of years.
But it also has something soothing to know how planets and starts are going to find their way again.
Therefor, we can still visit so many old monuments build as calendars to measure the angle and duration of sunlight! Stonehenge must be the most famous, but these constructions are also found in many other places! An impressive solar calendar closer to me can be found in a place called Goseck.
It of course matters for the harvest, as well as for more mobile groups to not lose each other completely.
And the sky is beautiful to watch and to be observed while changing.
Maybe you have to be a little thin skinned to enjoy this, but I certainly do. It is soothing and calming in a world so unstable and fleeting.
In the pandemic, the short nights could become an own kind of struggle.
I had no sleeping pattern anymore, after spending months alone with my laptop in one room, and so the early sunrise could easily destroy any last hope for sleep I have ever had. I even remember going to the bathroom with my eyes closed, to avoid seeing daylight. This did not go too well, of course. One thing I never did was staying awake on purpose and watching the earliest sunrise! That would have been a logical consequence, and I even thought about doing it! But it never happened. Maybe at some point, I will!
A very recent summer solstice I would still like to share took place last year! With a friend, I traveled to Berlin to attend my first concert since the pandemic, for which we chose the Norwegian musician Aurora. We had no hotel, and just spend the night in the city, to take the first train home in the early morning. That was a wonderfully glowing night of endless melodies and conversations.
These were my summer solstice memories. And this you can always trust in stars to return, let‘s hope for some more!
I feel the need to celebrate this night even more. Maybe with some nice and weird people and some magical tastes and music!
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/solstice/
https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/kalender-der-vorzeit-100.html
Mistress witch writes 