Summer Solstice

The words following were written by experts, waxing far more eloquent than I could ever be on anything, not least the topic of summer and the solstice. South-western Oklahoma summers, for my northern English blood, are not much fun - they're simply "too flippin' hot!" Still, though, for any passing readers who enjoy the heat - "have at it" (as they say) and please take my share as well!

"The spring rains woke the dormant tillers, and bright green shoots sprang from the moist earth and rose like sleepers stretching after a long nap. As spring gave way to summer, the bright green stalks darkened, became tan, turned golden brown. The days grew long and hot. Thick towers of swirling black clouds brought rain, and the brown stems glistened in the perpetual twilight that dwelled beneath the canopy. The wheat rose and the ripening heads bent in the prairie wind, a rippling curtain, an endless, undulating sea that stretched to the horizon."
Rick Yancey, The Infinite Sea



"Hot weather opens the skull of a city, exposing its white brain, and its heart of nerves, which sizzle like the wires inside a lightbulb. And there exudes a sour extra-human smell that makes the very stone seem flesh-alive, webbed and pulsing."
Truman Capote, Summer Crossing



Heat, ma’am! it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.
Sydney Smith, Lady Holland’s Memoir



It is Summer, it is the solstice
the crowd is
cheering, the crowd is laughing
in detail
permanently, seriously
without thought.
William Carlos Williams

Solstice

Music Monday~ Into Summer....Loudly sing, "Cuckoo!"

"Sumer Is Icumen In" is a traditional English medieval round, and possibly the oldest such example of counterpoint in existence. The title might be translated as "Summer has come in" or "Summer has arrived".
The round is sometimes known as the Reading rota because the manuscript comes from Reading Abbey though it may not have been written there. It is the oldest piece of six-part polyphonic music (Albright, 1994). Its composer is anonymous, possibly W. de Wycombe, and it is estimated to date from around 1260. The manuscript is now at the British Library. The language is Middle English, more exactly Wessex dialect.
(From the YouTube video site.)
Translated:
Summer has arrived,
Loudly sing, Cuckoo!
The seed grows and the meadow
blooms
And the wood springs anew.....etc.

A few, more modern, celebrations of the season:

HAPPY DAZE!

SOLSTICE - or in Ancient Rome, Day of Ill Omen

Solstice Greetings! (Intoned with an underlay of sorrow). I've whinged, more than once, at this time of year, that I heartily dislike Oklahoma's summers. For those in more northerly climes or in the southern hemisphere where winter's comin' in, or for those mortals who love the heat, the bugs, and avoid attendant allergies: have at it (as they say)! I shall celebrate come Autumn.



To sidetrack my own negativity I decided to investigate Ancient Romans' customs for signs of Summer Solstice celebration.

Ancient Romans were no slouches when it came to festivals - no excuse was too small, no deity too insignificant to honour if it meant a bit of legalised carousing! However...although there were several days of celebration during June in Ancient Rome, a festival specifically to mark the astronomical Summer Solstice didn't happen.

Sources online tend to copy others' words (and errors). I'm not sure how true it is that Solstice in the time of Ancient Rome fell on 24 June, when Romans celebrated in honour of goddess Fors Fortuna - but in any case, that festival was nothing to do with the position of the Sun at that time of year.

A days-long festival, Vestalia, was held, lasting from June 7 to 15, in honour of Roman Goddess of the Hearth, Vesta. At these times married women could to enter the Shrine of Vesta. At other times of the year only vestal virgins were permitted inside. Again, this festival had nothing at all to do with the position of the Sun in the sky.

The month of June was named for Roman goddess Juno. Several festivals were held in her honour, but no major celebration of Juno took place in June, and certainly none to mark Solstice.

Something I discovered which could have a bearing on why 21 June wasn't a day filled with rejoicing in Ancient Rome: it was known as Black Day, a day of ill omen, being the anniversary of the defeat of the Romans to Hannibal in 217 BC. Roman armies, led by Gaius Flaminius, were ambushed and defeated at the Battle of Lake Trasimene.
Snip from HERE

The historians Polybius and Livy recorded that about 10,000 Romans and allies managed to survive the Carthaginian ambush. At least 15,000 Romans were killed in the battle or drowned trying to escape. About 6000 Romans managed to escape through the fog, but were caught the next day. The Carthaginian commander offered them safe passage if they would surrender their weapons and armor. After doing so, however, the Carthaginians took them prisoner and the Romans soldiers were sold as slaves. Any Roman allies among them were sent back to their hometowns; Hannibal hope to destroy the system of alliances the Romans had created with allied and conquered towns. The Carthaginians then sold the confiscated equipment to merchants, who sold the armor and weapons back to the Romans.

Carthaginian losses were reported at 2500 killed with several hundred more men dying of their wounds in the weeks to come. Hannibal and his army were now the masters of central Italy. Rome was panic-stricken and expecting the enemy at its gates any moment.

It would seem that celebration of the Summer Solstice specifically due to the Sun's position in the sky around 21 June was peculiar to more northerly countries in Europe. When Romans invaded and occupied Britain they'd have come across various Druidic practices and rituals, one of which must have surely been Solstice celebration. Romans probably wrote this off as something only "savages" got up to. Sources have reported that human sacrifice was performed as part of Druidic ritual, though this has been rejected by modern Druids (they would, wouldn't they?) In any case, though, Romans had no business looking down their well-hewn noses at human sacrifice - we know all about their nasty habits!

Summer Solstice ~ Hopper's and Vettriano's Summers

Today: Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere, while winter begins in the southern half of the globe.

Oklahoma summers are not my cup o' tea by a long chalk. Why? The extreme heat, the insect bites, the allergies..... so excuse me if I don't celebrate with wild enthusiasm. To mark the day, though, I'll pull out half a dozen depictions of summer by a couple of favouite painters of mine. These two don't paint leafy glades and gardens filled with flowers, instead their summers are urbane in flavour rather than rural.....It comes as a surprise that I find a more evocative sense of summer in these works than from any rural or floral scene, even those painted by the best of the best. My two chosen painters: Edward Hopper and Jack Vettriano, the former is a well-loved American artist, the latter artist is sometimes - always even - derided by critics, but that only endears him to me the more!

There are archived posts on both artists with notes about their astrology HERE
and HERE.


Edward Hopper's summer ~~

Jack Vettriano's summer ~~

And a matching track: The Summer Knows - theme from the 1971 movie The Summer of '42. It was composed by multiple Oscar and Grammy Award winner, French composer Michel Legrand, with lyrics by Marilyn and Alan Bergman, sung here by Scott Walker, whose rendition has just the right "feel" to it to blend with these paintings.

Or...if a female vocalist is preferred, it'd be hard to top Ms Streisand's version -nice video with this one too:

SUMMER

Another Solstice looms: summer arrives in the northern hemisphere, winter in the southern reaches of our planet.

I'd try to wax lyrical about the summer, as most do, but I'd fail.

Summer months here in Oklahoma do not thrill me. Excessive heat is added to allergies and related headaches, then there are the pesky bugs! Going outdoors for long is a no-no for me.

To passing readers who enjoy the summer season - it's all yours folks - have a great time! I shall do my rejoicing come Fall.

SUMMER

When we reach Summer Solstice I feel a little sheepish. I'm supposed to celebrate, but quite honestly I don't enjoy the summer months. I especially don't like them here in SW Oklahoma.

Perhaps it doesn't help that I am, by birth a winter person, born in the depths of a snowy January on the cold northeast coast of England. My Aquarian Sun doesn't relish 90 - 100 degree heat. Even my Aries Moon gets wimpish at those temperatures.

It's too darned hot in Oklahoma, from June onwards right through until the Fall gets properly underway around mid-October. There are too many biting vampire bugs who love my blood, and to whose attention I am particularly sensitive. There's too much pollen blowin' in the wind and it kick-starts serial hayfever symptoms which hang around indefinitely, whether I dose myself with the tablets or not. There's always the risk of a stray late-term tornado whizzing across the plains towards Chez Twilight, too.

Whinge, whinge! On the positive side - it's all downhill from here to the Autumn equinox!

I've been trawling through photographs taken during my last summer in England. The temperate climate of East Yorkshire helped a lot! These were all taken within walking distance of my old home.

(Humming: "Mmmmemories light the corners of my mind, misty water-colored mem'ries of the way we were....Scattered pictures -"

SOLSTICE GREETINGS to all summer-lovers - and Solstice Sympathies to kindred spirits who long for the Fall.