Celebrating the Seasons - The Summer Solstice

Fairy garden at my house.

   This is one of my favorite celebrations in the Celtic calendar.  There is so much myth and legend surrounding the day. I often try to get people together for a party of some kind.  The traditions of this day are ancient.

    The solstice, mid-summer according to the Celtic calendar, is the night that the fairies come out to play.  Maine has a wonderful tradition of fairy house building.  It is a great activity for kids to do. I use to bring my first graders to a park near the school to build them and they loved it! You can learn how here.

    There are many ways to celebrate this day but you can see some here.  I've made daisy wreaths with friends and at the end of the evening we built a bomb fire and threw them in, after making a wish of course.

   Just coming together with friends and having fun is my primary goal.  This is the time for dragon flies in my area and according to Celtic mythology, dragon flies are fairies in disguise.  Fairies love to be around people and by using their dragon fly disguise they can hover close by without being recognized.  As kids, we use to think that if a dragon fly landed on you you were truly blessed.

   Take your camera and tripod out to record the twilight or do some macro images of flowers and butterflies.  Whatever you do on this day, be sure to say "thank you" to Mother Nature.  What would we contemplative photographers be without a lush and vibrant natural world?

   This last link is to a blog that focuses on all the seasons of the year which may interest you...

Living in Season - Blog