May this sundial solar station encourage us all
to reach heavens as we search and learn

 

 

 

A Celestial Learning Station

Dedication
June 21, 2003
11:30 - 12:30
on Summer Solstice

Sundial Class
 
Wanting to show their love for Joann, many of her patients and friends gave money to a memorial fund to create something that would continue Joann's belief and work in the importance of healing, education and the beauty of nature.  Joann was a great humanitarian, teacher and healer.  As long as I am alive, her dream of touching others will not die. 

About Summer Solstice   Information cited on  http://www.religioustolerance.org/summer_solstice.htm

People around the world have observed spiritual and religious seasonal days of celebration during the month of June. Most have been religious holy days which are linked in some way to the summer solstice. On this day, typically JUN-21, the daytime hours are at a maximum in the Northern hemisphere, and night time is at a minimum. It is officially the first day of summer. It is also referred to as Midsummer because it is roughly the middle of the growing season throughout much of Europe. 

"Solstice" is derived from two Latin words: "sol" meaning sun, and "sistere," to cause to stand still. This is because, as the summer solstice approaches, the noonday sun rises higher and higher in the sky on each successive day. On the day of the solstice, it rises an imperceptible amount, compared to the day before. In this sense, it "stands still." 

Why does the summer solstice happen?

The seasons of the year are caused by the 23.5º tilt of the earth's axis. Because the earth is rotating like a top or gyroscope, the North Pole points in a fixed direction continuously -- towards a point in space near the North Star. But the earth is also revolving around the sun. During half of the year, the southern hemisphere is more exposed to the sun than is the northern hemisphere. During the rest of the year, the reverse is true. At noontime in the Northern Hemisphere the sun appears high in the sky during summertime, and low during winter. The time of the year when the sun reaches its maximum elevation occurs on the summer solstice -- the day with the greatest number of daylight hours. It typically occurs on, or within a day or two of, JUN-21 -- the first day of summer. The lowest elevation occurs about DEC-21 and is the winter solstice -- the first day of winter, when the night time hours reach their maximum.

Significance of the summer solstice:

In pre-historic times, summer was a joyous time of the year for Aboriginal people in the northern latitudes. The snow had disappeared; the ground had thawed out; warm temperatures had returned; flowers were blooming; leaves had returned to the deciduous trees. Some herbs could be harvested, for medicinal and other uses. Food was easier to find. The crops had already been planted and would be harvested in the months to come. Although many months of warm/hot weather remained before the fall, they noticed that the days were beginning to shorten, so that the return of the cold season was inevitable. 

The first (or only) full moon in June is called the Honey Moon. Tradition holds that this is the best time to harvest honey from the hives.  

This time of year, between the planting and harvesting of the crops, was the traditional month for weddings. This is because many ancient peoples believed that the "grand [sexual] union" of the Goddess and God occurred in early May at Beltaine. Since it was unlucky to compete with the deities, many couples delayed their weddings until June. June remains a favorite month for marriage today. In some traditions, "newly wed couples were fed dishes and beverages that featured honey for the first month of their married life to encourage love and fertility. The surviving vestige of this tradition lives on in the name given to the holiday immediately after the ceremony: The Honeymoon."

Native Americans:
  • The Natchez tribe in the southern U.S. "worshiped the sun and believed that their ruler was descended from him. Every summer they held a first fruits ceremony." Nobody was allowed to harvest the corn until after the feast.
  • Males in the Hopi tribe dressed up as Kachinas - the dancing spirits of rain and fertility who were messengers between humanity and the Gods. At Midsummer, the Kachinas were believed to leave the villages to spend the next six months in the mountains, where they were believed to visit the dead underground and hold ceremonies on their behalf.
  • Native Americans have created countless stone structures linked to equinoxes and solstices. Many are still standing. One was called Calendar One by its modern-day finder. It is in a natural amphitheatre of about 20 acres in size in Vermont. From a stone enclosure in the center of the bowl, one can see a number of vertical rocks and other markers around the edge of the bowl "At the summer solstice, the sun rose at the southern peak of the east ridge and set at a notch at the southern end of the west ridge." The winter solstice and the equinoxes were similarly marked.
  • The Bighorn Medicine Wheel west of Sheridan, WY is perhaps the most famous of the 40 or more similar "wheels" on the high plains area of the Rocky Mountains. Mostly are located in Canada. At Bighorn, the center of a small cairn, that is external to the main wheel, lines up with the center of the wheel and the sun rising at the summer equinox. Another similar sighting cairn provides a sighting for three dawn-rising stars: Aldebaran, Rigel and Sirius. A third cairn lines up with fourth star: Fomalhaut. The term "medicine wheel" was coined by Europeans; it was a term used to describe anything native that white people didn't understand.

The dates and times of the summer solstice:

The exact date varies from year to year and may occur between the 20th and 23rd of June. 

Year Summer solstice (UT)
1999 JUN-21 @ 19:49
2000 JUN-21 @ 01:47
2001 JUN-21 @ 07:37
2002 JUN-21 @ 13:24
2003 JUN-21 @ 19:10
2004 JUN-21 @ 00:56

The above dates and times were provided the astronomical calculations on The Dome of the Sky web site. 9 Times are in UT (Universal Time). This used to be called Greenwich Mean Time or GMT. In North America, you can find your local time by subtracting:

  • 2 hours 30 minutes for Newfoundland daylight savings time
  • 3 hours for ADT
  • 4 hours for EDT
  • 5 hours for CDT
  • 6 hours for MDT
  • 7 hours for PDT
  • 8 hours in AKDT (Alaska)
  • 9 hours in ADT (Aleutian Islands)
  • 10 hours in HST (Hawaii) 10

The ancients did not have access to modern mathematical algorithms to calculate the date and time of the solstice. To the unaided eye, the sun would seem to set/rise at the same location on the horizon for about five days before and after the actual solstice. Ancient people would record the days when the sun rise or set was noticeably different from the extreme position, and interpolate the probable day of the solstice. They then used a variety of techniques to display future solstices:

  • A carved or painted symbol, or some other marker, would be located at the end of a long passage that was exposed to sunrise or sunset on the solstice. It would be illuminated by the rising or setting of the sun on the day of the solstice. Alternately, a hole in the roof of a structure would allow the noonday sun to shine onto a marker set into the floor.
  • In temperate zones, the shadow of an upright pillar would be observed at noontime at the summer solstice. The shadow would be shortest on that day.
  • The point on the horizon where the sun set and rose would be observed from a fixed location. A remote marker would indicate where the sun rose or set on the solstice. 3