Merry Meet to All of You!
Nearly Midsummer, where is the year gone?!
With the Summer Solstice and corresponding Litha celebrations (21st June) coming up fast, Lisa and me are mapping out ideas what we could do for Litha, something meaningful but also fun, so our kids will enjoy it too.
Litha (Summer Solstice, St John's Eve, Alban Hefin) is one of the lesser Sabbats in the Wheel of the Year and marks the shortest night of the year, after which the hours of darkness will slowly start to increase again and the convergence of the Sun and the Moon, with the Sun being at its zenith but the Zodiac entering the water-sign of Cancer, the only sign ruled by the Moon.
Midsummer is a Fire and Water festival, traditionally marked by bonfires and ritual baths.
Midsummer's Eve is also known as the most magickal night of the year, again traditionally used for divination and to gather magickal and /or healing herbs and plants (fern seeds, for example, to be used in invisibility spells/potions, were gathered on this night and this night only). It is believed that plants are to be ideally picked at midnight or when the first dew forms.
The greeting of the sunrise is a major part on Midsummer's Day, so with Midsummer's Eve conveniently falling on a Saturday this year, why not stay out all night to celebrate, greet the sun in the morning and then roll into bed?!
This is certainly something Lisa and me have in mind (we're sure the kids will love it!) so we will be going out for a picnic or barbecue on the evening and then make merry through the night with games, music and magickal/divination activities.
As the colours of Litha are golden yellows and oranges, together with gold for the God and red for the Goddess, you could theme any food and drink you bring along these lines, for example colourful salads with carrots, oranges or sweet potatoes, washed down with a nice glass of golden Mead. For the kids you could make your own home-made lemonade or ice creams, which are really easy to make and so much nicer than shop-bought ones (for lovely recipes see: http://theherbalchalice.blogspot.com/2009/06/recipe-of-week-midsummer-goodies.html ).
Fun activities could include a tug-of-war game (symbolising the battle of the Oak and Holly Kings). You could get everybody involved to find natural materials, like twigs or pebbles and flowers) to build a face of the Sun, or make their own Midsummer flower-wreaths to wear.
Midsummer is also the perfect time to open the doors to the Faerie realm, so go out and find yourselves an elder tree (see: http://theherbalchalice.blogspot.com/2009/06/tip-of-week-magick-elder.html )!
If you want to do divination work on Midsummer Nights Eve, why not try a love-oracle:
1. On Midsummer's Eve, place a piece of wax in an unwashed sock and sleep with it under your pillow.
2. In the morning, remove and melt the wax.
3. Pour into a dish of cold water - the shape the wax takes as it cools will reveal something about your future love life.
Whatever you plan to do to celebrate Midsummer, have fun and enjoy yourselves as this really is one of the most joyous, happy festivals about!
For official midsummer celebrations go to the bottom of:http://theherbalchalice.blogspot.com/2009/06/midsummer-nights-dream.html
Summer Blessings,
Ilona
No comments:
Post a Comment