Summer Solstice, 2011...

The Summer Solstice occurred on Tuesday, June 21st, at 1:16 PM in the US. The longest day of the year when the sun meets the Tropic of Cancer. Here in Savannah it was the hottest...well the hottest so far. In many ways I wish it turned out to be the hottest (around 100 degrees). I know that here in the deep south, there are days to come that the temperature will rise higher than that. Damn...

The Earth absorbs heat. That means that the first day of summer is actually not the hottest day of the year as some think. In the few days before and after the summer solstice, the earth's oceans and atmosphere act as a 'heat sink', absorbing the intense heat of the solstice. It actually takes several weeks for that heat to be released, causing July and August to be even hotter. "Sol" and "stice" are derived from a combination of Latin words meaning "sun" and "to stand still". We in the northern hemisphere are the closest to the sun, where as the southern hemisphere is embarking on their period of winter. I'm wishing I was in the southern hemisphere...

Personally, I am not a fan of the summer. When was I born? July...under the fire sign of Leo. My reigning planet is the sun. Go figure. If I were to rank the four seasons, one being my favorite and four being my least favorite...summer would definitely be number four. I have never had a good relationship with the blazing Sol. No matter what grade of sunblock I put on, I always seem to fry like bacon. That fact has always prompted me to joke that I am part vampire...but not the glittery kind...

From a celebratory standpoint, the summer solstice marks another place on the pagan calendar. Fires are lit, prayers are burned. Renewal is in the air. Sun, fertility, and marriage. Whoopee. I enjoy the onset of a new period of a rebirth, as it were. The heat...I can do without.

To all of the pagans, Blessed be and merry meet. To everyone else. ARGH!