A Pagan Midsummer: The Truth About Celebrations Around The Summer Solstice

[Ex-"Quranist"]

Peace everyone

This is from
http//pagan-wiccan-practice.suite101.com/article.cfm/a_pagan_midsummer

A Pagan Midsummer
Summer Solstice Magic, Rituals and Traditions

The Sun is at its highest point in the sky around June 23 in the Northern Hemisphere, marking the Summer Solstice, which has been a time of Pagan celebrations for millennia.

An Outdoor Celebration

The Summer Solstice is, above all, a celebration to enjoy in the open air and in good company! Feast, dance and enjoy the abundance of nature at this point of the fulfillment of the year, a time when herbs are at their most potent, and when humans can celebrate all their achievement and joys of the year gone by. Drinks to share at Midsummer include honey mead and elderflower wine or cordial.

Decorate the home or outdoor celebration space with blue and red ribbons, holly, oak leaves, reeds, wild roses and cultivated red roses, along with any yellow or red flowers.

Ancient Stones at Midsummer

Many Pagans gather at stone circles, or other megalithic monuments.

Very often these ancient monuments are aligned to give the rays of the sun a dramatic appearance at midsummer, testament to the enduring significance of the summer solstice to Pagan ancestors.

Fulfillment and the Ensuing Darkness
The Summer Solstice is a time of fulfillment when the God and Goddess are fully united, and when humans can manifest great changes in their circumstances in the material world.

Midsummer is a time when magic can be very powerful, for example, when used to further ambitions, to manifest a new home or to increase prosperity.

The Summer Solstice as a Fire Festival

Pagan celebrations of the Summer Solstice very often include the lighting of a bonfire, a tradition that has endured through countless generations. Oak is the wood of choice as the oak tree is associated with strength, stability and the sun.

The ashes of the fire may be spread in the garden to add fertility. Fragrant magical herbs, including vervain, lemon balm and mugwort, may be thrown onto the fire to burn up bad luck for the coming months, and walking through the smoke of the fire was traditionally believed to cure sickness and bring good fortune.

Turning Wheels at Midsummer

A traditional Summer Solstice activity was rolling cartwheels down hillsides. Here, the wheel represents the wheel of life or the wheel of fortune. Modern celebrations may include a Catherine wheel firework display, wholly appropriate for this fire festival!

From http//paganismwicca.suite101.com/article.cfm/celebrating_the_summer_equinox

Celebrating the Summer Equinox
Pagan Celebrations for the Longest Day of the Year

The Summer Solstice falls around the 21st of June each year. To understand the beginnings of celebrations marking the longest day of the year and the coming of the warm growing season, one must look back to pre-historic times, when the first people on earth in the northern hemisphere celebrated the warm temperatures and the coming growing season. Food was easier to find, Spring days had brought thawing out of the ground so the summer crops could be planted.

June Celebrations
June is traditionally the beginning of time between spring planting and late summer harvesting. There was more time for leisurely activities during this month, which also was the month of what was called the "Honey Moon," the first and only full moon in June. It is called that because tradition dictates that this is the best time to harvest honey from the bee hives, where the bees have been busy all spring making that sweet confection.

Another traditional celebration often held in June are weddings. The reason, according to information found at the Summer Solstice Celebrations website, is that May was the traditional mating time for the gods and goddess at the Beltane celebrations. It was unlucky to compete with the deities, so most couples did not plan their weddings until June. Many food dishes served at these weddings contained honey from the first harvests, thus the name of the event taking place after the wedding the Honeymoon.

Ancient Midsummer Celebrations
The Druids, who were the priests of the ancient Celtic regions celebrated the midsummer by crowning the Oak King, the god of the waxing year (the year past) who then fell to the Holly King, god of the waning year (the year to come). This was in recognition of the days becoming shorter after the summer solstice. In ancient China the celebrations were centered on the earth, the feminine, and the yin forces, opposite the winter celebrations of the heavens, the masculine, and yang. The goddess Epona, often seen as a woman riding a horse, was celebrated in ancient Gaul to bring about the aspects of fertility, sovereignty and agriculture.

Midsummer Bonfires
Several ancient Slav, Germanic and Celtic tribes in Europe celebrated midsummer by building huge bonfires to dance around and jump through. Some tribes believed that the crops would grow as high as the couples were able to jump through the flames, while others believed that the bonfires would create magic that gave more energy to the sun so it would remain strong throughout the coming growing season, assisting in creating a bountiful harvest.

[Wonderlouse]

I love midsummer, though it's mostly the food I love.

[Rev_John]

I love midsummer, though it's mostly the food I love.

Mid summer here is too hot.

[Alen]

Peace,
Respectfully.

There's no heat here. London is soooooo freakin' cold now and when the rain comes, it's like depressing and stuff. I wanna move to sunny California, Los Angeles, run on the beach, write scripts, direct movies and be in love with my wife, God willing, very soon, God willing.

Patience.

Gotta stay away from pagans though. They have no idea what they are doing or who they are .... nope nope

Peace.

[MUNZIR_ALI]

Mid summer here is too hot.

yay where I live its hot everyday.

[nsws1988]

Peace,
Respectfully.

There's no heat here. London is soooooo freakin' cold now and when the rain comes, it's like depressing and stuff. I wanna move to sunny California, Los Angeles, run on the beach, write scripts, direct movies and be in love with my wife, God willing, very soon, God willing.

Patience.

Gotta stay away from pagans though. They have no idea what they are doing or who they are .... nope nope

Peace.

It was June 23rd yesterday and it was quite hot!

http//news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Summer-solstice-arrives-new-agers-celebrate-Stonehenge/ss/events/wl/062101stonehenge;_ylt=Ag0Hv3Jr2stc4FFBJnefAEpbbBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTFlcWFuNHZ0BHBvcwMzBHNlYwN5bl9yXzNzbG90X3NsaWRlc2hvdwRzbGsDc2xpLWV2LWxpbms-#photoViewer=/100621/photos_sc_afp/7be43a937a65dd2b77c9bae4ae4bd496

[mohamad_itani]

first of all let us agree on what a shaher is ,

yes every one tell you it is a month ,well it is not .

all we know is that a shaher is present twelve times in a year.

and it is both lunar and solar.very well.

ok the prophet was told to tell us in the quran about the ahillat ,we need to use them so we know time of haj.good

so what is a shaher. it is the ahillat,but hey wait a minute am i saying that a month is from one ahillah to another.like maybe 26 days no not at all.

a ahillat is the combination of the hillals that is between or around five days. when the moon dies and there are those nights with out the moon then the moon is born again.those nights are what we call a shaher.yes those nights with out a moon.

yes that is a shaher and i will show you why. is is like only about five days.

and we have twelve of them in one year.so that we know the years.

good so it starts with the deiing of the moon to the birth of a new one,now why did allah tell us in the verse in the quran that we should come the homes from the door and not from the back,for if we count the ahiilat from the birth of a new moon then one shaher would be like 26 days but if come from the door of the shaher it will be like only five days.

strange what makes me say that,ok give one more minute.see about ashhur el haram,what could there be that we know them.

bare with me ,so now we know that a shaher is not the moon cycle,but the cycle of the ahillat.great,so how do we know ashhur al haram,we know from quran they are four.in one year four of those shahers have less nights then the ussuall ashhur.yes it is strange they are the shahers that come after the shaher of ramadan.and i will tell you how we know it is ramadan ,give me another minute.

onlythose ashhur all haram are seperate from eachother they like have two ashhur between them that are regular ashhur.in ahshur all haram their nights are only four and the rest of the ashhur have five nights.

so ashhur all haram are about four days long each and they are four.they come in pairs,this is what the test shows and often they are devided by a pair of regular shahers not months dont make the mistake of thinking a shaher is month.

it is a shaher ,the days and nights where one cannot see the mooon between the ahillat.

then we need to know when is ramadan.for it is true that the ashhur all haram start after the shaher of ramadan and that is what i have noticed.so know how do we know that ramadan has started.

or it is the coming shaher .

the quran tells us that the shaher of ramadan is a shaher of bayinat that we will be signaled with many signs to know it is it.

so let us see,since it is only a five night and day shaher as all the other regular shahers then it must be evident during the days that come before it that will give us all those signs.that it will be clear that this month is different.

so let us see together what are those signs.

1-the rain will start to fall again after a long summer.ramadan

2 change of season.

3-plants beggin to grow again.

4-the days stop form getting bigger and they start to get smaller.

5-one big moon in the sky and i mean really big. the biggest you can find all year round.the collor is different too.

6-the sun is different during sun set even after it sets those collors are differnt and the sun have a round shape we can see,with out hurting our eyes.it is also the biggest sun we can ever see.

7- all this in a few days likesome twenty days.or twenty six and can be found together with in that time frame.

6-some call the moon the harvest moon for the fulll moon during that time is full of light,and one can see very clearly.

so we get all those signs and then we know that the time this time when the moon is not there any more for those comming few days it is called the shaher of ramadan.yes five days we are ordered to fast those days without a moon.

during those days is lalayet al qadr.remmember when the quran says,(wa kan kaba qawsayne aw adna)yes between those too cresents when there is no moon to light the night,and there is only darkness it is the shaher.

the thing about those ashhur el hurum and ramadan well they dont change seasons,yes mostly ramadan is in september or october,and the hurum ashhur basically come,in march april and october december.

but do the experiments your selfs dont take my word for it.

inshaalah allah will lead us with the quran and nothing else,every thing else is shurk and will result in many ikhtilaf.

brother please forgive me if i have mistaken or mislead you in any way.

Allah knows best.