Daylight hours peak with solstice, bringing summer and celebration

A few people may have spent Monday planting crops. Others might have feasted, or taken… A few people may have spent Monday planting crops. Others might have feasted, or taken advantage of the high fertility time and gotten married.

For most, however, the summer solstice probably just meant a few extra minutes of daylight.

Farmers, from ancient times through modern, spend this time planting summer crops. The Druids in Celtic countries may have monitored the passage of the sun by observing its position at sunrise through the placement of the rocks, such as those at Stonehenge, which Pitt Professor Emeritus Bruce Hapke described as a “solar observatory.” Knowing when the solstice occurred, even though they didn’t understand the astronomical process, was critical to ancient peoples for the success of their crops, Hapke said.

“If they planted crops too early, they would get frozen, and if they planted crops too late, they wouldn’t ripen in time,” Hapke said.

The solstices, as well as the equinoxes, marked important points for those whose survival depended on predicting changing temperatures and seasons.

“Even though the ancient people didn’t know what was happening, they marked these points, these secret points, and they would celebrate these occasions,” Hapke said.

Although fewer people in modern nations are concerned about planting crops, the solar points still hold significance for many. In countries close to the North Pole, the summer solstice — which means “sun stands still” — marks a period of “white nights,” during which the sun never sets low enough for dark to fall, according to Hapke.

Summer solstice is the only of the four points not associated with a major Western holiday, Hapke pointed out. The early Christian church assimilated festivals of the winter solstice, which usually falls around Dec. 21, into the celebration of Christmas by placing the holiday on Dec. 25. Easter, likewise, falls near the point of the vernal equinox, while Halloween comes close to the autumnal equinox, Hapke said.

“We do have these celebrations — altered, sort of, but celebrations at the same time,” Hapke said.

For others, the points in the sun’s orbit merit more direct recognition.

Lucien and Kali Vastel, the owners of Hocus Pocus, said the summer solstice marks a high fertility time and is viewed as a lucky period for marriages by many of the earth religions. Rituals for the summer solstice are less structured than for many other celebrations, Kali said.

“It’s like a fun holiday. Everyone has a lot of fun,” she explained.

For ancient pagan groups, the solstice marked the peak of the year and the last celebration before the harvest — the “midlife of the year,” according to Lucien.

But the fertility recognized at this time of year is not limited to reproduction, Kali added. The solstice also marks a high point in creativity and productivity in work, she said, likening crops in farming cultures to personal projects in modern times.

Many customers this time of year seek materials for fertility amulets and bags, which are worn for fertility, Kali said. The store has sat on Meyran Avenue, between Fifth and Forbes avenues, for five and a half years.

Although ancient cultures may have recognized only the significance of the solstice, modern astronomers understand the reason the solstices and equinoxes mark the beginnings of the seasons.

Hapke described the earth’s orbit as the rim of a compact disc, with the earth as a sphere that spins on its axis as it circles the edge. The earth’s axis, an imaginary line that runs from the North Pole to the South Pole, tilts at an angle that never changes as the earth orbits the Sun.

As a result, the Northern Hemisphere points toward the sun for half the year, and away from the Sun for the other half. The Northern Hemisphere’s orientation toward or away from the Sun determines the season. Twice a year the sun shines directly on the Equator, or the center of the earth, and between those times the sun reaches a high point shining on one or the other of the hemispheres — once on the Northern Hemisphere and once on the Southern Hemisphere.

When the Northern Hemisphere points toward the sun and experiences a summer solstice, as it did on June 21, the Southern Hemisphere experiences a winter solstice.

The points at which the sun shines on the Equator are known as the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, which mark the first days of spring and fall, respectively. The summer and winter solstices fall directly between the equinoxes.

“When the earth is at the location where the sun is the highest in the sky at noon, that’s the solstice,” Hapke said, explaining that each hemisphere’s summer solstice marks the longest day of that hemisphere’s year, or the day that has the most hours between sunrise and sunset.

After passing the summer solstice, which marks the first day of summer, the Northern Hemisphere will experience progressively shorter days until the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. At the autumnal equinox midpoint, like the vernal equinox, day and night will be an equal 12 hours everywhere in the world.

But Hapke said that the passing of the summer solstice doesn’t mean students will have to begin coming in early just yet.

“It’s nothing that you notice, because it happens so slowly,” Hapke explained.