Midsummer, also called the summer solstice, takes place in Britain on 21 June, when we have the most hours of daylight in the year. On that day, there were about seventeen hours of daylight, with the sun rising at 4.42 am.
There is a tradition of getting up to see the sunrise at a prehistoric site, although given how early in the morning the sunrise is, it might be easier to stay up all night!
There are many prehistoric sites across Britain, and Ireland, dating from thousands of years ago. Some are large and elaborate and some more modest. They can be constructed from stones, which were sometimes brought a long way, earth, and wood, which of course has perished, although may leave traces.
Probably the most famous of these prehistoric sites is Stonehenge, which is in the photo. This place is in Wiltshire, in the south of England, and was built from 2000 to 3000 BCE. Stones in this circle were positioned to align with the movements of the sun. Most probably, the prehistoric people did rituals there at special times.
Whether or not, the prehistoric site which people choose to visit at this time, was a kind of astronomical calendar, some people today still like to go there at the summer solstice, and also at midwinter, or the winter solstice. At the winter solstice, we have the fewest hours of daylight, with the sun rising around half past eight in the morning. Sunset on midsummer and midwinter is also a good time to go.
Perhaps only a few people, tens or hundreds of thousands, do visit these places, but those who do can be very colourful. A variety of people go, from modern day pagans or new age people, to families and sight seers, and people who enjoy the historical link of human continuity in the landscape.
An old photo from 1984. By Salix alba at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4611783
These mass gatherings have not been possible last year and this year, due to the coronavirus. Let us hope that they do become possible again!
Vocabulary:
solstice is one of the two times during the year when the sun is furthest from the earth's equator. Solstice comes from Latin: sol is the Latin for sun, and this root gives us words like solar, as in solar power; the latter part of the word comes from the Latin verb, sistere, to stand still, because the sun appears to stand still.
prehistoric means before written records, so ancient, a very long time ago. Prehistoric is pre/historic, that is, before historic; historia from Greek, is a narrative, a written enquiry learning from research, a history, a story.
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