midsummer - litha, plans?

[Flemish_Seeker]

Hey,

If you celebrate midsummer/Litha, what have you planned for it?

I’m working on 21/6 but I want to observe the sun at 05.24 (sunrise for me) and at 17.54 (exact moment solstice for me).
I also want to take a few hours in the evening , light some candles and think about Sunna and Balder and sacrifice some seasonal food to them.
I also want to start reading in a book about ‘ritual plants and herbs in Europe’. For food I’m thinking about fresh bread, potato salad, berries ...

So it’s certainly not a formal ritual - more a bunch of activities.

[Klaw]

Hey,

If you celebrate midsummer/Litha, what have you planned for it?

I’m working on 21/6 but I want to observe the sun at 05.24 (sunrise for me) and at 17.54 (exact moment solstice for me).
I also want to take a few hours in the evening , light some candles and think about Sunna and Balder and sacrifice some seasonal food to them.
I also want to start reading in a book about ‘ritual plants and herbs in Europe’. For food I’m thinking about fresh bread, potato salad, berries ...

So it’s certainly not a formal ritual - more a bunch of activities.

We usually spend time outside grilling and enjoying the sun. We also include a blot that for us is a personalized toast with mead, which is also poured onto the ground for an offering. I guess you could call it a celebratory picnic. I think this year we will also have a period of reflection after dark on the balcony.

[Klaw]

personalized toast with mead

Just found a new mead that will be fantastic, Moonlight Meadery's Scorn Hatch Valley Green. Mead blended with jalapeños and habaneros.

[PerditaPickle]

If you celebrate midsummer/Litha, what have you planned for it?

I too will be working during the day on the 21st, but as it's a Friday I might be able to plan something for the evening.  I might try to take my lunchbreak outdoors that day, which is a rarity for me, to ensure I've spent at least some time outdoors even if that's all I can manage that day.

If all else fails, I usually go for a walk to the nearby river estuary on my way home from work, or sit for a while in the nearby dog-walking park or wander a bit further afield to the Common, which is pretty much the nearest green space.  If absolutely all else fails and the weather is dry that day I can sit out on the front lawn for a little while and listen to the birdsong after I return home from work.

My friend was speaking about doing a day trip to the Avebury stone circle, which we've done a few times in the past - it'd likely be on the Saturday, if it goes ahead (she's yet to make any firm plans with me, but I am seeing her in a couple of days so I can ask her then).

I'll let you know which of these ultimately goes ahead (and if I come up with anything more imaginative by then, too).

[Jenett]

If you celebrate midsummer/Litha, what have you planned for it?

I am not planning much for this year (for reasons below) but in my tradition it's become time for the more general/emotional visioning for the group and year (as well as a reflection on where we are with personal goals for our own cycles.)

I'm not doing much this year because I have a colonoscopy scheduled on the 21st, and this pretty much precludes planning to do anything else that day (and I'm not scheduling anything for the day after, either, because I don't know how I'll feel.) We're also currently in a weird place because I have one Dedicant approaching asking for initiation (yay!) and three Seekers (also yay) but it means the 'thinking about the group as group' is a bit weird.

I did have my 25th high school reunion last Saturday, which for a variety of reasons I was approaching with a bunch of ritual-related work, and it was a gorgeous day, spent largely outside, on a beautiful campus, and I'm feeling like that covers some of the gaps I'd otherwise be feeling (both in terms of a 'pause and reflect about larger arcs' and in terms of 'spend some time outside being pleased at the sun')

[Flemish_Seeker]

I hope the colonoscopy goes well!

[Altair]

I'm not doing much this year because I have a colonoscopy scheduled on the 21st, and this pretty much precludes planning to do anything else that day (and I'm not scheduling anything for the day after, either, because I don't know how I'll feel.)

Good move. I finally did it--about 5 years later than I should have--and it wasn't nearly as onerous as I feared, and a great load off my mind.

[Altair]

Hey,

If you celebrate midsummer/Litha, what have you planned for it?

I’m working on 21/6 but I want to observe the sun at 05.24 (sunrise for me) and at 17.54 (exact moment solstice for me).
I also want to take a few hours in the evening , light some candles and think about Sunna and Balder and sacrifice some seasonal food to them.
I also want to start reading in a book about ‘ritual plants and herbs in Europe’. For food I’m thinking about fresh bread, potato salad, berries ...

So it’s certainly not a formal ritual - more a bunch of activities.

[Altair]

Hey,

If you celebrate midsummer/Litha, what have you planned for it?

I’m working on 21/6 but I want to observe the sun at 05.24 (sunrise for me) and at 17.54 (exact moment solstice for me).
I also want to take a few hours in the evening , light some candles and think about Sunna and Balder and sacrifice some seasonal food to them.
I also want to start reading in a book about ‘ritual plants and herbs in Europe’. For food I’m thinking about fresh bread, potato salad, berries ...

So it’s certainly not a formal ritual - more a bunch of activities.

The solstices are my high holy days, and I do the same thing every year for my favorite, the summer solstice: I go outdoors before dawn, watch the sunrise, and then am required to stay outdoors (with indoor allowances only for the briefest of bathroom breaks) for the entire day, until sunset. It's my day to savor life at its fullest. Lots of walking, feasting (ice cream!) and drinking (frozen strawberry margaritas!) in outdoor cafes, stumbling into outdoor concerts, enjoying nature in the parks, exploring parts of my city I've never been to before.... It's full-on engaging of the senses, and very Zen.

I take the day off from work to do this, if the date is a weekday, though I'll shift the celebration a day or two before or after the solstice if the weather forecast requires it.

So not all that different from yours, in that I watch the sunrise, note the moment of solstice and the moment of the sun at its zenith, and watch the sunset; and like yours, if it's a ritual, it's an unstructured one.

[Jenett]

Good move. I finally did it--about 5 years later than I should have--and it wasn't nearly as onerous as I feared, and a great load off my mind.

We're not expecting anything dire, more ruling out that there isn't a GI cause for mild but persistent anemia (on the other hand, family history has meant I knew I was looking at it somewhere between 40 and 50, and I'd rather do it and have the baseline and get to ignore it again for a while.)

But it is putting a crimp in my ritual schedule, since I don't know how I'm going to feel after (and the necessary diet beforehand is trickier when you have blood sugar issues, so not sure how I'm going to feel the day before, either.)

Joys of magic and ritual in a human body!

[Flemish_Seeker]

light some candles and think about Sunna and Balder and sacrifice some seasonal food to them.

I’m going to sacrifice to Mercurius/Lugus and Rosmerta as well. It are always the same names that pop up when I do research, that must mean something. 😊

[PerditaPickle]

I'll let you know which of these ultimately goes ahead (and if I come up with anything more imaginative by then, too).

In the end, my friend gave me a lift back home from work this afternoon and we had a cuppa & some biscuits at her place whilst finalising our plans.

Turns out she's a few things on her agenda for this weekend and I'm pretty exhausted from the past week (during which a train strike has had me working longer days & spending longer commuting each day), so in the end we've agreed on a trip to the nearby New Forest (which actually dates back to the times of the Domesday Book, and before) for Sunday afternoon.

I might also try some meditation/mindfulness out on the front lawn tomorrow if the weather's fine, and possibly some potting up of plants if I can make the time.  And hopefully I can find some time & energy to do a mini-litter pick in the street out front of our apartment block sometime tomorrow, too.

[Altair]

Turns out she's a few things on her agenda for this weekend and I'm pretty exhausted from the past week (during which a train strike has had me working longer days & spending longer commuting each day), so in the end we've agreed on a trip to the nearby New Forest (which actually dates back to the times of the Domesday Book, and before) for Sunday afternoon.

I might also try some meditation/mindfulness out on the front lawn tomorrow if the weather's fine, and possibly some potting up of plants if I can make the time.  And hopefully I can find some time & energy to do a mini-litter pick in the street out front of our apartment block sometime tomorrow, too.

I hope yours and everyone else's solstice plans came off perfectly. (Mine got rained on in the morning, but I toughed it out--yoga in Times Square in a downpour!--and the afternoon turned gorgeous.)

Happy solstice to all!

[PerditaPickle]

in the end we've agreed on a trip to the nearby New Forest (which actually dates back to the times of the Domesday Book, and before) for Sunday afternoon.

Our snacks for our trip tomorrow - I've also made  us a cold infused tea blend of mint and Earl Grey to take.

[PerditaPickle]

Some photos from our afternoon out.

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