The traditional way of celebrating solstice are nearly identical to how you would celebrate memorial day or the 4th of July – spending the day outdoors playing games, fireworks, and the all important barbeque (bonfire)! The sun represents vitality and life force, so engaging in activities that celebrate the living are very important on this day. As always, it is traditional to decorate with wreaths, symbolizing the wheel of the year, decorated with yellow flowers, representing the sun. It’s also the time of year to dispose of spring decorations and replace them with summer oriented ones – and disposal is commonly done in a bonfire where it is safe to do this.
Celebrations starting in the evening and lasting through the night are also common. I was quite surprised this morning when searching for celebrations to find that almost everywhere there are public solstice celebrations consisting of food, dance, music, performers and sometimes ritual as well! Check your local listings to find out if there’s any such celebration near you – there’s one near me about 30 minutes from my home in the nearest big city. Celebrations are a perfect way to celebrate the solstice because they are so full of vitality and life energy and really bring a community together.
I was also surprised to see the number of solstice sales going on today – it’s so nice to see some public recognition of the day again, even if it is just being used as an excuse for shopping.
So, how are you planning to celebrate the solstice today? I’m planning on picking up some hotdogs and hamburgers and grilling them up, and performing candlelit devotions tonight. Here in the desert it’s over 115 degrees today and a little too warm for summer outside games, so those will be postponed until evening when things cool down. Our celebration will also include gratitude for the worsening of the heat being over and looking forward to the cooling of fall.