June 20th was the summer solstice, at 23.34 BST. It's the longest day of the year with about 17 hours of daylight. This year the solstice coincides with a full moon. This moon is also known as a strawberry moon as it is the start of the strawberry season. The 2 events coincide once every 50 years, the last one was 1967.
Many people think the solstice signifies the start of summer.
The name solstice comes from the Latin solstitium meaning “sun stands still”. It happens because the sun stops heading north at the Tropic of Cancer and then returns back southwards.In the northern hemisphere this means the days begin to get shorter.
Many pagans congregate at Stonehenge for the solstice. "Crowds who gathered at Stonehenge at dawn to mark the summer solstice were down by about half this year, English Heritage said.
It said about 12,000 people attended the neolithic site in Wiltshire to watch the sun rise at 04:52 BST" [21 June]. [BBC]
MIDSUMMER
Midsummer, also known as St John's Day, is the period of time centred upon the summer solstice, and more specifically the Northern European celebrations that accompany the actual solstice or take place on a day between June 19 and June 25 and the preceding evening. The exact dates vary between different cultures.
Although it is a pagan festival, the Christian Church designated June 24 as the feast day of the early Christian martyr St John the Baptist, and the observance of St John's Day begins the evening before, known as St John's Eve. (from Wikipedia)
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