Diwali Greeting Languages

festival of light

Around 21 June the Sun reaches the zenith - that is the point higher above us - and the so-called summer solstice, the day is the longest of the year going up to the maximum duration and the night is the shortest of the year.
On this day begins the astronomical summer, while we are in the middle of summer farming, the summer solstice is also called the midsummer day, while Celtic Litha called this day the name of an ancient goddess like Demeter / Ceres.
As the winter solstice and the two equinoxes, this festival is a period of stagnation, a time when the Sun is in a precarious balance and seems to stand still for a few days on the horizon and the ancient rites held for the Sun once again making its infinite loop.

The sacredness of the days solstice is a tradition that reaches us from time immemorial. In Nordic myths
this step is represented by the eternal struggle between the Oak King (ruler of the growing part of the year) and the Holly King (ruler of the waning part of the year). The clash between the two occurs during the solstices Re: During the Summer Solstice the Oak King dies to give way to the Holly King, while during the winter solstice the Holly King dies to ensure that the Oak King may reign. When one of the kings should die in the realm of Arianrhood Goddess (silver wheel) to unwind waiting for rebirth.
Many others are still ancient beliefs and customs related to the summer solstice, a celebration undoubtedly linked to the fertility of the fields ... is in this period that what had been planted earlier is beginning to be seen, the land is lush, many fruits and vegetables are harvested and eaten or sold, to allow the livelihood of the community. This is reversed in the rituals and habits of the population in some countries, like Wales for example, there were (and still are today) customs relating to the fertility of women and men with regard to divination and love.
During the Christianization of rural festivals on the summer solstice has been superimposed on the feast of San Giovanni which is considered a party for the collection of many herbs. There are many traditions associated with this festival, the best known is the collection of the dew of the night between 23 and 24 June: the dew collected on this night was miraculous ability of each type and is used for many magic charms. And there are also other traditions which, needless to say, are linked to the rural world and pay, however, absorbed by the Christian religious holidays without altering the origins and meaning of them.

The summer solstice also produces a series of phenomena astronomical quite interesting due to the inclination of the axis of rotation of the Earth, at latitudes above 66 ° the sun never drops below the horizon, and then never falls the night and witness the so-called midnight sun .
The duration of this phenomenon depends on the latitude: 70 ° to the sun never sets for 17 consecutive days at 80 ° for 71 days at the poles (90 °) for half the year. Since there are no inhabited land south of the Arctic Circle, this experience is limited to the people of Fennoscandia, Russia, Canada, Alaska, Greenland and Iceland (the latter only by refraction, being under the Polar Circle). In
regions at lower latitudes to the Arctic Circle to about the 60th parallel, then there is the phenomenon of so-called White Night . In these regions the sun sets behind the horizon, but due to the refraction of light of dusk is enough to carry out any activity at night without the use of artificial light.

On The Republic online today in the Travel section, there is a fine article by Anna Maria De Luca - From Helsinki to Riga, the summer festival - which describes the main destinations and celebrate the summer solstice in northern Europe.