5 Rituals for The Summer Solstice

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Jun 10, 20261252620Share

Hello,

Hope your week has been happy. Can you believe next weekend is the Summer Solstice? It’s the big event in the year for anyone that celebrates a solar calendar. So… that’s all of us!

In the ebb and flow of the year, the Summer Solstice is the flow - the incoming rising tide that lifts us all up and flood the land with life and colour.

It’s strawberry cake and sunrises, ox-eye daisies, herbs and roses, it’s feeling sociable, celebrating the light, being outside and noticing how alive everything is right now.

It’s deep and ancient magic.

Today I’m going to share five beautifully simple ways to celebrate it, from lighting a Solstice candle and watching the sunrise to getting creative with solar printing and baking something with strawberries in.

What’s the Summer Solstice?

Just before we dive in, let’s quickly start with the basics. The Summer Solstice occurs when the sun is at its highest position in the sky, creating the longest day and the shortest night of the year. Because the sun appears to stand still in the sky for a few days around the Solstice, it was seen as a strange and otherworldly time, where normal laws of nature were suspended and magical things could happen. The word solstice actually comes from the Latin sōlstitium, which translates as sōl, (sun) and sistere, (to stand still).

In the Northern hemisphere it falls between June 20th and 22nd (June 21st this year). and it marks the official start of astronomical Summer. However some believe the Solstice actually marks the midpoint of the season, hence the name ‘Midsummer’. The night before Solstice / Midsummer is when celebrations traditionally begin and this night has long been linked with otherworldly happenings, fairies and spirits

I love the Solstices so much I wrote a book about them, The Solstice Yearbook, which you can buy directly from me (UK delivery only at the moment), or find your local retailer

Ok, here are 5 ways to celebrate the Summer Solstice:

1. Watch the sunrise

Sounds simple, but this is admittedly the trickiest sunrise of the entire year to catch as it’s also the earliest sunrise of the year (much easier in winter when it happens at a more reasonable hour). But if you can set an alarm and manage to see it it’s also one of the most significant. Sun worshippers will be gathering at Stonehenge at dawn on Solstice morning, as they have been for thousands of years, but I think watching it from your own bedroom window is just as meaningful, and a lot easier to manage.

If you have small children then you’ll probably be awake at the crack of dawn anyway, and I like to think of the sunrise as nature’s small, but beautiful, compensation for all the hours of broken sleep us parents go through. Like the gentlest shoulder squeeze of encouragement from Mother Earth herself when you’re exhausted right to your bones.

2. Make something with strawberries in

Strawberries have become inextricably linked with Midsummer, as strawberry picking season usually starts a week or two beforehand. I’m incredibly invested in seasonal baking (unlike savoury cooking which I have zero interest in). I’ve already picked the first punnet of strawberries this week and made the first strawberry cobbler of the year. That was an excellent day. If only you could live off cakes and biscuits alone…

Below are two strawberry recipes to try:

by me
by MustLoveHerbs (just swap the blackberries for strawberries. I love this recipe and use it year round with different fruit)

3. Do some drawing / painting / solar printing

When was the last time you did something creative, just for the fun of it? There’s a lot of talk about an analogue lifestyle and analogue hobbies at the moment and, obviously, I’m all in favour of that. What I’ve found the hardest though is doing creative things just for the fun of it with no expectation of the outcome.

Particularly when you work freelance there’s a pressure to make everything that you do ‘work’ and find ways to share it or sell it. I’ve recently started painting and drawing again for the first time in years and initially I thought “I could turn some of these paintings into cards” and instantly I felt pressure starting to creep in. As soon as I decided just to make them for fun, and with no expectation of sharing the results online it became a lot more… fun!

Drawing demands you stop and look closely at nature, it frees your mind and occupies your hands at the same time. It doesn’t matter what the end result looks like, it’s the process that’s the whole point. (Which is the same reason so many of us reject generative AI, right?).

I’ve also recently rediscovered solar printing. This is where you take some solar card , then you create a pattern on top with small flowers or leaves, place the card in the sun and let it develop, like very basic solar-powered photography. It’s slow, simple and has no real purpose other than to create joy and capture a moment of midsummer forever.

Highly recommend.

4. Light a candle on Solstice Eve / Midsummer Eve

Lighting a candle at each of the Solstices is a simple bit of fire magic that can help you to celebrate the solar dates throughout the year. That’s enough on its own, but if you want to add a bit more magic you could make a very simple pressed flower lantern for your candle. It’s very quick to do, you just:

Coat a clean glass jar in a thin layer of clear PVA glue
Add some pressed flowers
Cover everything with a second coat of glue
Leave it to dry
Pop a tealight in. Done!

This is a great activity to do with children, and a few of these lanterns on an outdoor table at dusk look magical.

5. Eat dinner outside

Everyone knows food tastes better outdoors. The longest day of the year is the perfect time to host a summer garden party or just have a picnic outside and enjoy the long, light evening. Think back to the short dark days of winter and how distant this moment felt back then. Don’t let the day rush past by without allowing yourself a chance to truly notice and enjoy it. Get outside for as many hours as you can, while you can.

Ok, that’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed your Solstice newsletter and I hope you have a wonderful day filled with sun, strawberries and deep, quiet magic.

Now it’s over to you to share your Solstice rituals and traditions in the Comments.

I’ll be back again tomorrow with a short guide to the herb magic of the Solstice, then I’ll see you next month for a July edition of the Monthly Notebook. We’ll be diving into high summer rituals, water festivals and coastal living. Look forward to seeing you there.

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