Midsummer Day: Date, Traditions and Rites. Midsummer Day: Date, Traditions and Rites When the Longest Day in

June 21, 2017 is a day filled with the strongest energy of the solstice. The traditions of this time have been observed for several centuries, and the unique energy of the day can completely change your life.

What the longest day of the year can give you

June 21 is one of the strongest and most energetic days of the year. At this time, you can easily harmonize your biofield and thereby get rid of diseases, bad habits, material difficulties and all kinds of problems.

To implement the plan, you need to do three things:

1. clearly set a goal for yourself;
2. understand what stands in your way to the desired success;
3. turn to one of the elements: fire, water, air or earth.

Determining the element that is most likely to help you implement your plans is quite simple. Fire and air in occultism most often embody the "element-redeemer", that is, they turn to them in order to remove everything unnecessary and causing discomfort from their lives.

Earth and water, on the contrary, belong to the elements of embodiment, so if you want to attract wealth, love or luck, you should turn to one of them. Solstice rituals can help you renew your personal energy and get what you want in a short time.

Why is the summer solstice dangerous?

Like any time of power, the Solstice harbors not only creative, but also destructive energy. The "dark side" of this day can disrupt your plans and turn events against you.

An unfavorable outcome is possible if:

• you are in a quarrel with a loved one or blood relative;
• you were dishonest with yourself and others;
• your energy is weakened by constant stress and cannot painlessly accommodate both sides of the solstice.

You can only avoid troubles on this day by accepting and realizing your own responsibility for your life and everything that happens in it.

This day is intended to show us that both sides are always to blame for a quarrel, that harmony must be sought in oneself, and luck comes to those who are ready to help others without expecting immediate returns.

The first step to changing your life for the better can be the practice of positive thinking. We wish you a happy summer solstice and only a good mood. Take care of yourself and do not forget to press the buttons and

21.06.2017 11:08

The summer solstice is a special time in the esoteric sense. It is associated with the beginning of the astronomical summer, ...

Evening will not come until after nine o'clock in the evening

Today is the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere of our planet. This means that daylight hours will last longer today than on any other day. In Moscow, for example, the Sun began to rise above the horizon as early as 3:45 am, and sunset only at 9:18 pm. In the Southern Hemisphere, on the other hand, today should be the shortest and the night the longest.

The summer solstice can fall on June 20 (usually in leap years) or June 22, but it is June 21 that occurs most often. The height to which the Sun rises above the horizon today will be the maximum in the Northern Hemisphere, and the minimum in the Southern Hemisphere for the whole year. At the same time, for several days before and after June 21, the luminary at noon turns out to be practically at the same height, although in other periods of the year this indicator changes somewhat more rapidly. That is why the word "solstice" is used to designate today. At the north and south poles of the Earth, today is the middle of a six-month polar day and polar night, respectively.

Scientists call today the beginning of an astronomical summer in Eurasia, North America and most of Africa, as well as an astronomical winter in Australia and South America.

In many countries, there are traditions one way or another associated with the arrival of the longest day of the year, even if they rarely coincide with the "astronomically" exact date. In particular, from the evening of June 23 (July 6 according to the new style) and until June 24 (July 7), the folk holiday of the Eastern Slavs Ivan Kupala is celebrated. In Sweden, Latvia and some other countries, the summer solstice is officially considered a day off.

From tomorrow, the day in the Northern Hemisphere will begin to gradually decrease, and in the Southern Hemisphere - to increase. September 22 will be the day of the vernal equinox, when day and night on the entire Earth will last almost equally (if you do not take into account the influence of atmospheric refraction, because of which the day will still be slightly longer), and on December 21 - the day of the winter solstice.

In order to meet the day of the solar solstice, and therefore the astronomical summer itself, you must read this article carefully. In it, we tried to collect the maximum number of necessary rituals and traditions with which from ancient times we met the longest daylight hours. For Russians, this day will come at 6:24 Moscow time on June 22.

The ritual for properly meeting the summer solstice is pretty simple. To do this, you need to wake up before dawn, which, as we said, will come at 6:24 Moscow time. You should also prepare your home by opening all the windows to the morning sun to let in its first rays.

As soon as the entire solar disk appears over the horizon, you need to stand at the open window on the east side with open arms and greet him with tender words.

Magic, customs, fortune telling and rituals

Among the Slavs, the day of the summer solstice was considered the most powerful day of the year, when the gods fulfill any desires, and plants are endowed with the power to heal any disease. Healers and herbalists were stocking up on this day with medicinal herbs for the whole next year.

In popular belief, fern occupied a special place among all plants. It was believed that on this day, at the moments of the solstice, the fern blooms and blooms - and everyone who can pick a fern flower will be endowed with mighty power.

But, as legends say, it is extremely difficult and dangerous to find a fern flower, because it is reliably guarded by the spirits of the forest, capable of confusing daredevils in the wilds and taking away the gift of speech. So they went to look for a magic flower on the Kupala night not only because of its magical properties, but also in order to test courage.

In addition to herbs on the day of the solstice, the elements of fire and water also had a special power. It was believed that bathing on the day of Semiyarila heals a person from diseases and charges him with the energy of the Sun. According to legend, the magical power begins to grow after 11 pm on the eve of the Kupala night, reaches its peak at the moment of the solstice and lasts until noon on June 22.

In order to direct the magical power of magical time for their own good, our ancestors performed special rituals. They collected spicy herbs: mint, angelica, thyme - slightly dried them at sunset, and then, at midnight, kindled fires, alternately threw herbs into the fire and wondered.

If the smoke spread along the ground - in the near future a person faced the threat of illness and failure, rose up - happiness and health awaited him. Then the fire was covered with birch branches to protect against demons, and they made a sacrifice to the goddess Dana - they lowered flowers into the water and, stripping naked, jumped into the river.

The summer solstice was considered the most successful day for a wedding. The family unions that were concluded on this day turned out to be the strongest and most faithful. Children in such families grew up healthy and beautiful.

Modern astrologers confirm this popular belief - after all, the Sun on the night of June 21-22, the Sun passes into the zodiac sign Cancer, which symbolizes the family, the continuation of the family and the preservation of traditions.

Many customs and traditions of the Slavic holiday Kupala have something in common with the Christian day of the Holy Trinity. So, on this holiday, it was customary for the Slavs to decorate their home with birch branches and medicinal herbs - St. John's wort, elecampane, Ivan da Marya. Our ancestors believed that these plants attract good spirits to the house.

On the night of the summer solstice, young boys and girls walked in the forest, lit fires and jumped over them. It was believed that this ritual protects against disease, hunger and war. The cooled coals were collected and stored throughout the year, healing ulcers and wounds with them.

Signs

The water collected in the morning of June 21 is considered healing. Water was taken from wells and springs, washed with it on the same day and drank.
The girl who danced all night on Ivan Kupala at nine bonfires will certainly get married this year.
If, on the day of the solstice, a bouquet of Ivan da Marya is hung at the entrance to the house, then all the sorrows and misfortunes will bypass the house.
Rain on the Solstice holiday was considered a bad omen. They thought that the gods were angry and did not allow to light fires and conduct rituals for well-being.
To prevent evil spirits from entering the house on Kupala night, it is necessary to put or stick a thorny or burning plant under the threshold, nettles, branches of rose hips, raspberries, blackberries, etc.

Abundant dew on the morning of June 21 promised a rich harvest. They collected it and watered sick children for a year.
The clear starry sky on Ivan Kupala foreshadows a warm but rainy autumn.
In the evening of Midsummer’s day, we must go to the bathhouse and steamed with a herbal broom collected that day.

Even seriously ill people were cured after such steaming.
Those who have a birthday on the summer solstice, June 21 or 22, have magical powers and can heal people.
If on a Kupala night some man accidentally or deliberately pours water on you, you should be a husband and wife with him.
A couple in love must, holding hands, jump over the Kupala bonfire on the summer solstice, then they will definitely live a long and happy life together.
Coals from the Kupala fires are collected and laid out around the house, around the garden, and put on the roofs. They are believed to protect the farm from pests, thieves and fires.

Summer solstice divination

The summer solstice is celebrated annually on June 22nd. On the night of June 21-22, we can observe the longest day and the shortest night of the year. Since ancient times, this day was considered magical and was of great importance for people.

On the day of the summer solstice, it is customary to guess, perform customs and rituals.
Fortune telling on the summer solstice

They wondered on this day exclusively on the street. Girls and young people found out their fate and wondered for love. The most common fortune-telling was fortune-telling at the stake. Boys and girls, holding hands, jumped over the fire.

If the arms are separated in a jump, the pair will not be together.

If the hands are together during the jump, marriage awaits the young.

If sparks flew after, passionate love awaits.

If the fire goes out during the jump - do not be a couple together.

Fortune telling at the stake and one by one. Whoever jumps higher over the fire will be happy this year. Anyone who touched the flame of the fire with his foot or hand will suffer the whole year.

Modern magic and divination

For those who work on self-development, this day is very important, it is best suited for programming the future. On the day of the summer solstice, solar energy increases and the potential for magic, ritual and meditation increases dramatically.

This is one of the most powerful days of the year, when it is possible to "dream" of your happiness and to "program" yourself for positive and joyfulness. Therefore, the minimum program for this day is to tune oneself to a positive wave from the very morning and not to miss it right up to sunset.

So, what opportunities does this day present to us, and what can we do to improve our well-being, personal life, career, health. Fortune telling on the day and night of the summer solstice is much more accurate. Fortune-telling with Runes and Tarot cards is especially suitable.

On the eve of the summer solstice, love magic spells work much better. Collect seven different herbs, flowers and sew into an amulet. Flowers of calendula, lavender, rosemary, sunflower, fern, verbena, oak and rowan have the ability to attract love on this day. The traditional magical colors of the day are yellow and red.

This day is a good place to start your healing work, because the Sun is an esoteric healer. It is on this day that herbs for magic should be collected, especially those used for solar magic, fire magic, and for healing.

Wormwood, burdock, St. John's wort, mistletoe, dill, parsley, green onions, thyme, honeysuckle, nettle collected on this day have powerful healing powers. For example, nettle, burdock, and dill are used at home to ward off evil.

On the summer solstice, you can perform a ritual to protect your home. To do this, you will need: a rowan branch, red cloth and red threads. You can also use stones that have protective properties, such as agate or turquoise, protective herbs: St. John's wort, honeysuckle, anise. Put it all in a red cloth, wrap it up and tie it with red thread.

In this case, you need to say the following words:

"As a mountain ash is tied in red, so protection surrounds my home"

Each time you say these words, add one knot on the red thread. Place your protective amulet anywhere in or around your home safely. The same amulet can be made to protect your vehicle.

In the modern world, the days of the solstices have lost the importance that they had for people in the past, and today they do not attract much attention. The only ones who really follow this are the farmers and some modern pagans for whom these days are important.

Solstice is 1 of 2 days of the year when the Sun is at its greatest angular distance from the celestial equator, i.e. when the Sun's height above the horizon at noon is minimum or maximum. This results in the longest day and shortest night (summer solstice) in one hemisphere of the Earth and the shortest day and longest night (winter solstice) in the other.

At the time of the summer solstice, the ancient Slavs celebrated the day of Kupala (Kupalo or Kupala is the God of earthly joys). Therefore, even now, many people associate the solstice holiday with pagan rites of worship of the forces of nature and spirits, in particular, with the worship of the Sun and fortune-telling.

The traditions of Kupala include such rituals as collecting medicinal herbs, lighting fires, bathing or dousing with water, fortune telling, and festive treats.

According to Christian tradition, this holiday is celebrated 2 weeks later - Midsummer's Day, the Day of Ivan Kupala (John the Baptist).

Signs on the summer solstice:

If you climb over 12 fences on this day, then your wish will come true within a year.

To get rid of all diseases, you need to take a steam bath with a broom collected on that day.

Children born on the summer solstice, June 21 or 22, have an evil eye, that is, they can jinx. According to another sign, these people have good health and a happy fate, as they are under the protection of the sun.

Bad weather on the summer solstice predicts a poor harvest and a poor year.

If the Sun hid behind the clouds, the summer will be bad.

If there is a lot of dew in the morning - to a rich harvest. This dew was collected and poured into one vessel, it was considered healing. Water collected in the morning from wells and springs possessed the same power. They washed themselves with her on the same day and drank.

If there are many stars in the sky, this is a mushroom summer.

Solstice is one of two days in a year when the Sun is at its greatest angular distance from the celestial equator, i.e. when the Sun's height above the horizon at noon is minimum or maximum. This results in the longest day and shortest night (summer solstice) in one hemisphere of the Earth and the shortest day and longest night (winter solstice) in the other.

The summer solstice is the day of the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere of the Earth and the beginning of winter in the southern hemisphere, that is, if the inhabitants of the northern part of the Earth are at the beginning of the astronomical summer from that moment, then the astronomical winter will begin for the inhabitants of the southern hemisphere at the same time.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the summer solstice occurs on June 20, 21 or 22. In the southern hemisphere, these dates fall on the winter solstice. Due to various inequalities in the movement of the Earth, the epochs of the solstices fluctuate by 1-2 days.

In 2017, the astronomical summer in the northern hemisphere will begin on June 21 at 7.34 a.m. Moscow time.

On the day of the summer solstice at the latitude of Moscow, the Sun rises above the horizon to an altitude of more than 57 degrees, and in territories located above the latitude of 66.5 degrees (the Arctic Circle), it does not go beyond the horizon at all, and the day lasts around the clock. At the North Pole of the Earth, the Sun moves across the sky at the same height around the clock. There is a polar night at the South Pole at this time.

During several adjacent solstice days, the Sun's noon heights in the sky are almost unchanged; hence the name of the solstice. After the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere, the day wanes and the night gradually begins to increase. In the southern hemisphere, the opposite is true.

For millennia, the day of the summer solstice was of great importance to our ancient ancestors, subject to natural cycles. In the days of the pagans, the sun had divine power over all living things, and the summer solstice meant the highest flowering of all the forces of nature.

In the old days, even before the advent of Christianity, the Kupala holiday dedicated to the ancient pagan god Kupala was timed to coincide with the summer solstice.

On this day and night, they wove wreaths, drank surya (honey drink), jumped over fires, made sacrifices to water and fire, collected medicinal herbs, performed rituals calling for the harvest, and "cleansing the soul and body" of bathing in rivers, lakes and streams. The fern occupied the central place among the vegetation that night. It was believed that a fern flower, blooming only for a moment at midnight, would indicate exactly where the treasure was buried.

The people said: "On Kupala - the Sun for the winter, and summer for the heat", "Whoever does not go to the Baths will be a stump, and whoever goes to the Baths will be white birch."

The holiday has many names. Depending on the location and time, it was called Kupala, Kres (old Russian), Ivan the good, love, Ivan-Kupala, Ivan the herbalist, Yarilin's day (in the Yaroslavl and Tver provinces), Sontsekres (Ukrainian), Spirit-day (Bulgarian) and others. In Ukraine it is also known as Kupailo, in Belarus - Kupalye.

With the adoption of Christianity, people did not reject the holiday of Kupala, but, on the contrary, timed this day to the day of John the Baptist, which, according to the old style, falls on June 24. But according to the new calendar style, the day of John the Baptist falls on July 7th. To date, the celebration does not correspond to the astronomical solar equinox.

The celebration of the summer solstice was present in all ancient pagan systems, many peoples still celebrate it, some in its original form, and some in a simplified one, leaving only the basic rituals and translating the ancient rituals of the ancestors into a bright holiday.

The summer solstice was considered by all Celtic peoples to be the time of fairies, elves and other supernatural beings. Among the Celtic peoples of Britain, the holiday was called Lita and was closely associated with the pagan cult of the sun.

The Scandinavian and Baltic peoples celebrated the day and night of the summer solstice magnificently. Subsequently, these holidays in different countries were called Midsummer's Day or Midsummer's Night (from the national version of the name Ivan).

In Latvia, the holiday is called Ligo, or Jan's Day, it has state status and is celebrated on June 23 and 24, which are official days off. In Estonia it is also called Janov's day, in Lithuania - Jonines or Rasos (dew holiday). In both countries, it is celebrated on June 24 and is a public holiday and day off.

In Norway, the holiday named after John the Baptist is called Jonsok (Midsummer's Night). Another name for the holiday - Jonsvaka (Jonsvoko) - is formed from the name of Johan and the verb vake - "to stay awake." It was believed that on Midsummer's night one should not sleep until dawn - not only because one can hear the singing of elves, but above all for the purpose of a talisman for the whole coming year. Another name for the holiday, more "official" - Sankthansnatt or Sankthansaften (St. Hans's night).

In Sweden, the holiday is called Midsummer. Until 1953, it was celebrated on the same day that the Christian church celebrated the day of John the Baptist. But now the holiday usually falls on the penultimate Saturday of June, that is, it is usually celebrated from 20 to 26 June. In Sweden, the celebration begins the day before, on Friday, which is also a non-working holiday.

In Finland, during pagan times, the holiday was called in honor of the God of Fire - Ukon juhla, but now it is called Juhannus - an outdated pronunciation of the name of John the Baptist. Since 1954, Johannus has been celebrated on Saturday, which falls between 20 and 26 June. Since 1934, this day has been an official holiday - the Day of the National Flag of the country.