Do you long for long days and short nights? Then this can be the best day of the year for you and your fellow sunlight seekers.
The summer solstice falls late in the day on Friday, June 20 in the United States (it is already on Saturday 21 June in Europe). It is the longest day and shortest night in the northern hemisphere. It is also the first official day of summer.
Our old ancestors certainly took knowledge of the annual occasion. Some of their monuments were aligned to mark the Summer Solstice light exactly (looking at your Stonehenge).
Pagan parties of the day continue to modern times. Events include meetings in Stonehenge in England, the Midsummer Eve -celebration in Sweden and Ivan Kupala Night in parts of Eastern Europe.
The mirror image of the winter solstice, the Summer Solstice is historically linked to fertility – both the plant and the human variety – in destinations worldwide.
The science of the solstice and his traditions have already fascinated people for millennia.
Summer solid science
Is the Summer Solstice all over the world? No. It is only in the northern hemisphere, where almost 90% of the world’s population lives. People south of the equator in places such as Chile, South Africa and Australia have their winter solstice and the shortest day of the year there.
When is the Summer Solstice 2025 exactly? It will fall in London on June 21 at 3.42 pm. That is 7:42 PM in Los Angeles and 10:42 pm in New York City on Friday, June 20. In Tokyo it will take place at 11:42 am on June 21. Earthsky.org has a handy time zone conversion tool.
Who gets the most sunlight? The differences in how much daylight you become becomes very dramatic as you get closer to the posts and further from the equator. In the capital of Ecuador of Quito, barely north of the equator, people hardly notice the difference. They get a measly extra six and a half minutes from daylight.
But residents of Northerly Helsinki, Finland, get a sunrise of 3:54 am and almost 19 hours of daylight. Even the night doesn’t get that dark. The residents of Fairbanks in Central Interior Alaska can spot after those 19 hours. They get almost 22 hours of daylight, and black -out curtains may be fine.
Why don’t we get 12 hours of daylight all year round? People all over the planet even received almost equal doses from day and night three months ago during the spring equinox. But the amount of sunlight in the northern hemisphere has since increased daily. That’s because the earth is aligned on an axis, an imaginary pole that goes through the center of our planet. But this axis tilts – at an angle of 23.5 degrees.
“While the earth turns the sun (once a year), the tilted axle always points in the same direction. So all year round different parts of the earth get the direct rays of the sun,” Nasa explains. When the sun reaches its top in the northern hemisphere, that is the summer solstice. Then the days get shorter again until we split that 12-hour day/night into the fall equinox.
Is this also the hottest time of the year? In general it is not.
“On average, the vast majority of the United States experience its warmest temperatures in July or early August,” says CNN Senior weather producer Taylor Ward.
“The temperatures in essence continue to rise after the summer solstice because the amount of energy that comes in from the sun is still greater than the amount of energy that is lost at night – so it is actually an accumulation of heat until the daylight becomes short enough that this changes,” says Ward. “The only part of the country that sees their hottest temperatures in June, coinciding with the longest daylight of the year, are parts of the southwest” because of the timing of the cloudy monsoon season there in July and August.
The same general temperature pattern applies where in places such as Japan and much of Europe.
How to celebrate Summer Solstice
What does Stonehenge have to do with the summer solstice? The old stones of the monument in the southwest of England from around 2500 BC were aligned by the makers astronomically aligned.
The central axis of Stonehenge was aligned with the sunrise at Summer Solstice and Sunset in Winter Solstice, so that the stones accurately frame the rising and setting sun for days on their longest and shortest. And it still works as a timepiece in modern times.
The English Heritage Society organizes meetings in Stonehenge for the Summer Solstice and produces a live stream of the sunrise.
Which other cultural traditions surround the summer solstice? In Sweden, the Midsummer Eve -celebration is bound to the solstice, which is always held on the Friday that lands everywhere from June 19 to June 25. Maypoles, folk dances and romantic rituals are the order of the day.
In Ukraine and some other places in Eastern Europe, the Summer Solstice is connected to Ivan Kupala Night – a holiday with romantic connotations for many slaves. People dance, place flowering wreaths on the water and gather around bonfires.
In India, the birthplace of the old practice of yoga, the summer solstice is traditionally celebrated with mass yoga sessions throughout the nation. And the international yoga day of the United Nations falls every year on June 21.
The CNN wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Discovery Company by Warner Bros. All rights reserved.
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