{"id":1276,"date":"2019-06-17T01:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T07:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2019-06-08T05:20:08","modified_gmt":"2019-06-08T11:20:08","slug":"9-summer-solstice-facts-you-never-knew","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/9-summer-solstice-facts-you-never-knew\/","title":{"rendered":"9 Summer Solstice Facts You Never Knew"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The summer solstice is a special day that many of us wait for each year. As the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice brings sunshine and warmth well through the evening. We all know the solstice, on June 21st, marks the first day of summer<\/a>, but there are so many summer solstice facts you had no idea existed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSummer solstice\u201d has a special\nmeaning.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The word \u201csolstice\u201d derives from the Latin words\nsol \u2014 which means sun \u2014 and sistere \u2014 to stand still. Around noon on the day of\nthe summer solstice, the sun does not seem to move at all when compared to\nother days during the year. The rest of the year, the sun\u2019s path rises and\nfalls throughout any given day. This happens because the Earth tilts on its\naxis \u2014 approximately 23.5 degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sun sits directly over the\nTropic of Cancer.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

During the summer solstice, the sun stands over the Tropic of Cancer. In fact, it\u2019s how the Tropic of Cancer got its name. According to Discover Magazine<\/a>, the name was given thousands of years ago after the sun appeared in the constellation of Cancer the Crab.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not called \u201csummer solstice\u201d\naround the world.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In many parts of Northern Europe, the solstice is referred to as Midsummer<\/a>, while many Christian churches still recognize the day as St. John\u2019s Day \u2014 referring to John the Baptist\u2019s birth. Some Wiccans and other Neopagan groups actually call the summer solstice Litha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The date varies in different\nparts of the world.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

In North America, our summer solstice is on\nJune 21. However, other countries and regions celebrate this special day any\ntime between June 19 and June 24.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not all fun and games.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

During Midsummer, or the summer solstice, many\npeople in Europe sport traditional flower crowns. While these crowns may look\npretty and whimsical, they are actually worn for a dark reason. According to\npagan folklore, it was once believed that evil spirits appeared during the\nsummer solstice. A crown made of flowers and herbs was thought to help protect\nagainst these spirits. Traditionally, these flower crowns were made with \u201cchase\ndevil\u201d, or what is known today as St. John\u2019s Wart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some areas host midnight sports.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Alaska celebrates the summer solstice with\ngames of midnight baseball. Started in 1906, the game begins at 10:30 p.m. and\nlasts through morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A major universal collision\nprobably started the summer solstice.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Most scientists believe that the summer\nsolstice began when our planet collided with massive objects billions of years\nago \u2014 likely when Earth was still being formed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stonehenge may have been built\nfor the summer solstice.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Nobody really knows why Stonehenge<\/a> was built more than 5,000 years ago, but one of the most popular theories is that it was used to mark both equinoxes and solstices. This theory is further supported by the fact that the sun rises directly over the structure\u2019s Heel Stone and hits the Altar Stone right in the center during the solstice.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The summer solstice is a special day that many of us wait for each year. As the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice brings sunshine and warmth well through the evening. We all know the solstice, on June 21st, marks the first day of summer, but there are so<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"image","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-image","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","post_format-post-format-image"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1278,"href":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions\/1278"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.colonylimo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}