Celebrate summer solstice today

[savvypaul]

I'm always happy to celebrate the sun; bringer of life, vigour and happiness.

And I love to sing along...

Hey now, it's the sun...and it makes me smile

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

The season still largely control our lives, often without us knowing it.

[Lindsayt]

Christian or Pagan.... whatever. Jesus was born in a Cleethorpes boarding house some 2017 years ago? My question still stands... what's to celebrate? So this is the longest daylight and the winter solstice is the shortest, and the spring / vernal equinox is same daylight as dark. Yin and Yang is I feel immaterial here. It's merely the balance of an planetary orbit around a star.

I agree.

Christmas, Birthday's, Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Easter, Halloween, New Year's Day, wedding anniversaries, summer solstice.

If you want to give someone a gift do it. Any day of the year. If you want to be romantic. Do it. Any day of the year. If you want to dress up in fancy dress. Go ahead and do it whenever you feel like. If you want to celebrate being alive or just want to get off your head - go ahead and do it. It's your head and liver. Do what you want when you want - as long as you're not harming anyone else.


Of course, feel free to celebrate as many of these anniversaries as you want. None, some or all of them.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

It seems my point has got completely lost. Who said presents or cards, perhaps I used the wrong word, celebrate has too many connotations, I should have said acknowledge I think.

We still live on this planet even though we show it little respect. I think my point was the old days when the wheel was recognised people respected and understood the process, we now seem to not give a toss and show it no respect which is why we are killing it.

[CN211276]

The season still largely control our lives, often without us knowing it.

I go along with this. Ancient civilisations (pre Christian muslim etc) were well aware. Monuments all over the world, including in the UK, were precisely aligned in accordance with the solstices and equinoxes in recognition.

[Daniel Quinn]

There is clearly something to this seasonal clock and importance to life on earth , before capitalism determined we must measure every second , seasonal change would have been the pre-eminent time to measure . Clearly plants have an inbuilt seasonal clock and I suspect humans do .

Every year for most of my life I have had a eczema out break on my hands in May . It comes in May and goes in May , only to return the same time again next year .

[Alfi]

How spooky is this, for I too suffer an eczema outbreak on the back of my lower legs in May but only in May

Alfi.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Probably allergic reaction to a pollen that is only being shed in May.

Your skin doesn't like plant sex

[Daniel Quinn]

Not so sure

Your bodies have internal clocks built in to its DNA ,things that tell your hair to grow and stop , nails to grow , skin to grow over a wound *, menstrual cycles etc . The causes of eczema are usually internal rather than external .


* Keloid scarring is an overgrowth of skin at the start of scarring for some reason , the body does not tell the skin to stop growing it usually happens in messy wounds were the original skin is severely damaged.

[kimangelis]

Ah... Yes I certainly acknowlege the passing of the seasons and the shift in daylight. Once sat outside my tent until midnight at a place called Scourie some 20miles south of Cape Wrath, determined to read a newspaper at midnight (failed). Spent last years solstice in southern Florida and was mortified when it went dark at 7.30pm... who's stolen my daylight? I spent the winter in Scotland with back-to-back gloom only to have tropics daylight in the summer. Ack Phphfft...!!

Perhaps I was being a litle pedantic. I'm up with the crows and jackdaws at 5.00am in the summer then wear velcro pyjamas in the winter and have to drag myself out of bed at 7.15am. I don't suffer SAD but the light (more than the warmth) is certainly an effect. However for me it's simply a cycle. The 21st of June / December have no real meaning beyond the longest / shortest day. I couldn't worship the sun because I know it's a huge bag of flaming elements that hold this semi-solid mass of elements in its orbit, any more than I can accept man was forged in God's likeness or the earth was made in seven days some 15,000 years ago. Because I recognise evolution.

Whilst I can accept such ancient religious beliefs before enlightenment. Present day Druidism (?) is little more than an amusement for the tourists wandering about Avebury. Probably only slightly more amusing than the celebration of Jesus's birthday on the 25th of December.