FEATURE — On Tuesday, the sun represents a force of opposition, when it both gives and takes its maximum light. It is a time when Earth has not only its longest day but also its longest night.

The word “solstice” derives from the words “sol” (sun) and “sistere” (standing still), which alludes to the illusion of the sun standing still for three days and marks a time when the sun reaches its farthest point north or south of the equator.

Commonly referred to as the longest day of the year, the summer solstice marks the first day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere  and occurs between June 20-21. Simultaneously, the Southern Hemisphere enters the first day of winter, enduring its longest night. In December, the opposite is true. 

But this biannual event means more than a calculation of light; it is an astronomical phenomenon that inspired the creation of rituals, art and calendar systems, tying together ancient people with modern times. These traditions carry as far back as recorded history and can be found in a multitude of cultures worldwide, such as the ancient Greeks, Romans, Chinese, Vikings and Native Americans.

Those who practice some form of paganism encompass a culture commonly associated with ceremonial traditions surrounding the solstice. And for them, the summer solstice is called Litha, one of eight pagan holidays (sabbats) annually observed.

It’s important to note that “pagan” was not a name people of this belief system initially called themselves; rather, “it was used at the end of the Roman Empire to name those who practiced a religion other than Christianity, Judaism or Islam,” according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary.

“Pagan” also is conflated with “heathen,” and the meaning of both have developed over time to denote a more pejorative meaning of “strange” or “uncivilized,” a misconception that has bled into modern times, which is one of the reasons Sagemoon, a St. George pagan, asked to be referred to by her craft name, as she said she feared discrimination.

Sagemoon said while not all pagans are the same, they generally believe in multiple deities, which some consider more archetypal in nature. They also consider everything as a duality and recognize a universal balance of male and female energies. For instance, the sun represents masculine energy, while the moon is feminine.

Litha represents a time of energetic shift from masculine to feminine energy.

“So with the summer solstice and the winter solstice, it’s seen as a trade between male domination and female domination of the season,” Sagemoon said. “From the winter solstice to the summer solstice, it’s a feminine time of year, when you see most of the growth, the awakening, the nurturing, where the plants are brought back to life. Whereas, the male side of the year, between the summer solstice and winter solstice, is … when things are harvested and eventually come to an end.”

Times of particular importance are sunset (for the summer solstice) and sunrise (for the winter solstice), which indicates the time when the exchange takes place between the masculine and feminine energies, she said.

Pagans celebrate Litha in various ways.

Wiccans will often celebrate a more Celtic-centered holiday, she said. Historically, Celts honored the Celtic goddess and symbolically crowned the Oak King, considered a fertility god. Historically, the Celts also ignited bonfires to banish evil spirits and sent wheels of fire rolling down hills. They enjoyed feasts and danced around the fire; some lovers even jumped over the flames to bring themselves luck.

Other pagans who practice Faery Craft will dress up in costumes and makeup and put up decorations, as well as arrange offerings of wine, milk and honey, which are said to attract the fae, she said.

Pagans also may recognize and honor Greenman, a legendary pagan god who roams the woodlands and represents the spirit of vegetation, while others participate in local festivities, such as those in Southern Utah attending the Parowan Gap presentations, she said.

Some people that aren’t affiliated with a particular sect go camping or barbecuing.

“You probably never recognize a pagan celebrating their holiday because we end up doing things that are typical to the season,” she added.

For Sagemoon, Litha is a time to be outside with nature. She said she usually heads north to the woods to just be in the sun.

‘The moon, the stars, the dirt, the rocks’

In Southern Utah, one site of particular intrigue for the summer solstice is the Parowan Gap Narrows petroglyph site, where people come to watch the sun’s descent in the gap carved through the hills by an ancient river and has been at the center of a decadeslong study.

Despite a common misconception that this site has links to the Southern Paiutes, Glenn Rogers, a member of the Shivwits Band of Paiutes Council, told St. George News this is not a place people should associate with the Paiute culture, nor did the Paiutes have a celebration specific to the summer solstice. Instead, they celebrate the four seasons. 

“No Paiutes ever went to Parowan Gap for the solstice,” he said. “We didn’t know the solstice. We had get-togethers for the four seasons to dance, sing and celebrate the crops.”

The Southern Paiutes, having lived in the area for thousands of years before the migration of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came to Southern Utah, are known for their deep understanding and sensitivity to the land and how to survive in the desert. 

In addition to raising crops, including wild onions, potatoes, squash, corn, melons, gourds and wheat, alongside Southern Utah rivers, they also foraged seeds, roots, berries and nuts and hunted rabbits, deer and mountain sheep. 

“We knew where the water was and what food to eat,” Rogers said. 

He said, in some ways, the summer celebration marked the beginning of a new year, and as with all four seasons, it is a time to honor the universe, Earth and its inhabitants.

“It’s about the sun, the moon, the stars, the dirt, the rocks, the plants, the four-legged, the winged people,” he said. “And that’s what we celebrate during this time.”

A time of moving forward

In a message to St. George News, Tammy Phillips, Washington City resident and administrator of the Wiccans and Pagans of Southern Utah Facebook page, said for her, the summer solstice is about moving forward.

“We started over, in the spring, and we need to move forward and keep the same energy for whatever we set ourselves to do,” she wrote. “I typically just try to keep the same enthusiasm to keep moving forward. If I ever feel like I’m slacking, I’ll do a simple cleaning ritual to get rid of whatever might be holding me back.”

Phillips said she has developed her own rituals rather than find them elsewhere.

“I feel that has made it more personal and powerful,” she wrote.

While she doesn’t have any specific plan set for this summer solstice, she said she plans to go out into nature soon and just embrace all that it has to offer.

‘To honor the solstice’

Stephanie Lindhardt, a mother and artist in Hurricane, told St. George News she considers the solstice a time to look back.

“It’s a time of reflection because that’s when I stop and pause and think, ‘Wow, look at all the things I’ve done in the last six months, or the last year, since the last summer solstice,'” she said. “It’s that checkpoint because I don’t have other religious checkpoints per se.”

The solstice wasn’t always a day of significance for her but represents a major turning point in her life following a divorce several years ago.

She said part of her journey was to detach herself from the commercialized holidays and define which holidays she wanted to celebrate with her family. Through this, she naturally gravitated toward understanding the solstices as days of significance. Though her lineage has ties to Norse paganism, she never celebrated the solstices with her immediate family while growing up.

“When I was redefining myself, the solstices became almost like Christmas. … They were my holidays,” she said. “Those astrological pinpoints make more sense to me than the Gregorian calendar.”

As an artist, she said she considers painting a means of therapy, and her work largely depicts humanity’s eternal interconnectedness with Earth and the loving force of the cosmos.

She said she hopes her work invites people to “fall in love with the planet. Fall in love with Mother Nature. Fall in love with this beautiful existence that we have.”

Lindhardt said after her divorce she started to paint again. Also during this time and through meditations, she said she found a single word as a central focus to help her navigate the unpaved path back to herself when all aspects of herself and belief systems had come into question.

“I just didn’t even know who I was,” she said, adding that the first word she adopted was “awareness,” as this was the essential key to unlocking unopened doors of inquiry.

After she established some sense of awareness, her next word was “inspiration” and led to a time when she said she grappled with the difference between influence and inspiration.

“I no longer wanted to be influenced,” she said. “I wanted to write my own story. I was sick of being influenced and adopting other people’s ideas. And so I went on this journey of inspiration. And that is genuinely when I started to honor the solstice … it was a whole awakening.”

The painting “Inspiration” was born out of this, and she painted it during a past solstice.

In the painting, a woman sits in the center holding orbs of electricity.

“To me, that was the inspiration flowing through her freely,” Lindhardt said. “She’s completely free of influence or strings or anything.”

She then painted the sun and the moon superimposed over the top of each other, showing the duality.

“To me, the solstice is about balance and duality, because we have the winter and the summer,” she said. “And so, in this piece, I was painting duality with the moon and the sun, with ‘inspiration’ being the word, the electricity, the energy.”

Lindhardt said while she never knows exactly what she’s doing for the solstice, she does know she’ll be outside.

How to celebrate

Parowan Gap

The summer solstice event at Parowan Gap will be held Wednesday, the day after the solstice, and includes activities held in Parowan and at the Parowan Gap (10.5 miles west of Parowan). For more information or driving directions, call 435-463-3735.

At 8:30 p.m. attendees will begin the walk to the Sunset Cairn with a viewing of the sunset at 9 p.m. at Sunset Observation, where viewers will watch the sun drop down between the gap in the rock formation, where an ancient river carved a 600-foot-deep notch into the red sedimentary rock, later named Red Hills. Attendees are encouraged to wear good walking shoes. 

According to a book written by Garth Norman, an archaeologist, archaeo-astronomer, epigrapher and art historian, Norman was one of many who participated in the Parowan Gap Archeological Project, a 10-year, multidisciplinary project that included a site excavation, a recording of all rock art and a pedestrian archeological survey.

Norman said he first stumbled upon the site in 1973 as well as a plaque that said the petroglyphs could be interpreted as symbols for hunting, travel, ritual and a lot of “doodling.”

“I did not believe that disclaimer, and would eventually prove it wrong,” he writes in the book. Two decades later, he returned to the site to conduct the project.

Norman, who also is recognized as a leading authority in iconographic research of the early Mayan Izapan culture, said the major achievement of this project was “full documentation of a sophisticated calendar observatory within a cosmic wilderness temple center, along with significant petroglyph interpretation, and cultural ties to the Southwest and Mesoamerica.”

And according to the project’s findings, Norman said, the hundreds of petroglyphs found at Parowan Gap were recorded by “ancient astronomers” and depict sun solstices and calendar systems that interact with an extensive observatory system composed of over 25 stations to mark key dates.

Stonehenge 

Perhaps the most well-known celebration associated with the solstice is Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England. Here, the sun rises behind the Heel Stone, where it then shines directly into the heart of Stonehenge. 

This year, those interested in joining in on the festivities at Stonehenge can do so digitally. Click here to learn more.

Make up your own tradition

There really is no requirement to partake in an organized celebration to observe the summer solstice. Take a walk in nature. Gather flowers from your yard and adorn your house. Nurture Earth by picking up litter. Find a quiet space to watch the sunset. Meditate. Honor the light.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.