The period around the summer solstice, after which the daylight hours will diminish, has always been marked with ceremony and ritual to acknowledge the summer’s peak. Whether embracing the legends and traditions of the Hill of Tara, or lighting bonfires in west Donegal to mark St John’s Eve, the day before the feast day of St. John the Baptist, or undertaking solstice walks in Kerry, or finding a sunny soundtrack, those celebrating this time of year draw on the interplay of Ireland’s pagan and Christian inheritances to pay homage to one of the distinct quarters of the year.
Historically, the summer solstice was about the recording of the passage of time, festivals associated with agriculture and farming, fire ashes spread on crops to boost their yield, and for some, a belief that the soul would depart temporarily from the body as the sun stood still. Folklore records the widespread belief in rural Ireland that with every day after the solstice “the shadows lengthened by a cock-step”.
Marking the solstice is not just about giving structure to the year and its progression, but also the elemental need to embrace nature and the open air. It invites us to contemplate our fragilities and our need to be aware of the preciousness and power of what surrounds us. It should bolster a consciousness of our landscape, environment and the life forces running through them; of old creations facing new pressures and the solaces we can find and cherish. The American poet Mary Oliver reminded us of our need not to forget these things in her 1992 poem The Summer Day
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I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down
into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass,
how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields,
which is what I have been doing all day.
Tell me, what else should I have done?
Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon?
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
with your one wild and precious life?”
