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Midsummer morn, anything happening?
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Subject: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: John J Date: 18 Jun 01 - 01:23 PM Midsummer morning is almost upon us up here in the Northern Hemisphere. I have in the past gone up to Alderley Edge, not too far from where I live in Cheshire, to watch the sun rise. I have seen Morris sides dancing up there in past Mayday sunrises and midsummer morning sunrises. Does anybody know if there's anything happening around here (or anywhere else for that matter) this coming midsummer morning? John |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Sorcha Date: 18 Jun 01 - 01:25 PM I'll be sleeping.....zzzzzzzzzzz |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: MMario Date: 18 Jun 01 - 01:27 PM Can anyone tell me why it's midsummer when it's actually the beginning of summer? |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: John J Date: 18 Jun 01 - 01:29 PM If you live around here you'd be forgiven for thinking that we are still in winter! John |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Mrrzy Date: 18 Jun 01 - 01:43 PM When is midsummer, anyway? Is it the solstice? |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Midchuck Date: 18 Jun 01 - 02:23 PM Well, the official beginning of summer would be the solistice, June 21, and the official end would be the equinox, Sept. 21 - so Midsummer should be halfway between them...which would be about six weeks after the solistice and six weeks before the equinox...which makes it somewhere in the first few days of August. But people seem to refer to the solistice as "Midsummer." I don't get it. Peter. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Linda Kelly Date: 18 Jun 01 - 02:32 PM Ah yes JohnJ, Alderley Edge, where legend has it, King Arthur lays buried awaiting the call when England falls into peril. What better place for the sacrificial burning of an annoying bodhran player! |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: RichM Date: 18 Jun 01 - 03:25 PM Burning a bodhran player--what an idea! Do they give off a lot of heat? |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: MMario Date: 18 Jun 01 - 03:31 PM they should, most of them take a lot of heat most of the time. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Matt_R Date: 18 Jun 01 - 03:47 PM Ah, now you got me singing Travis's "Midsummer Nights"! |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Eric the Viking Date: 18 Jun 01 - 03:50 PM Come you lot, pagan's all. The solstice is the longest day. The sun rises at it's earliest and sets at it's latest.Mid summers day is June 24th. Don't forget that there have been climate changes since the solstice days and equinoxes were worked out. Take for instance frost fairs that happened before the winter solstice, when rivers were frozen and winter had a good grip. now a days, the winter though not as cold is only just begining to grip in the UK One explanation for mid summers day being only 3 days after the solstice is that our summers are so bloody horrible that by a week later it's raining again and so summer happens within a week (joke) |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: mousethief Date: 18 Jun 01 - 04:10 PM Midsummer's day was around LONG before anybody had the bright (I'm being sarcastic) idea of fixing the seasons to the solstices and equinoxes. Check it out: http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_170b.html Alex |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: MMario Date: 18 Jun 01 - 04:16 PM which brings us back to why is midsummer in June? based on the weather etc, it should be in august or at least late july. (at least for much of the northern hemisphere.) |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: mousethief Date: 18 Jun 01 - 04:24 PM It's halfway between beltane and samhain. Or something. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Hollowfox Date: 18 Jun 01 - 04:35 PM I'll be at Old Songs, myself. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: nutty Date: 18 Jun 01 - 05:24 PM Surely the "longest day" which is around the end of June would be the natural "mid" point of the year in the "summer" season. Until 1756 (or there-abouts) New Years Day was on April 25th, so actual "dates" don't mean a great deal. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Mr Red Date: 18 Jun 01 - 06:01 PM Midsummers Hill (Hill fort) in Malvern often has. Rollright stones (Oxon/Warks border) usually chose the nearest Sat for bachanalia. srf for Rollright AND stones. to claim to be a true Englishman (as per legend) I tried to watch the dawn on midsummers day over the stones. the sun, far from being red was overcast and it was damp and foggy. Ho Hum |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: mousethief Date: 18 Jun 01 - 06:06 PM March 25, not April. Alex |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Eric the Viking Date: 18 Jun 01 - 06:20 PM Yes of course the day has always been there Alex and will be long after we depart. It's a bit like; "Columbus didn't find America, it wasn't lost, it was always there." However the earliest men who had a degree of interlect other than eat, sleep and reproduce charted at least in their own minds, if not by some method of recording, the changes in seasons, day and night length.So these celebrations remain as part of a culture that existed for possibly hundreds of thousands of years, maybe longer. Go for it lads, celebrate the solstice in your own way. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Eric the Viking Date: 18 Jun 01 - 06:20 PM Yes of course the day has always been there Alex and will be long after we depart. It's a bit like; "Columbus didn't find America, it wasn't lost, it was always there." However the earliest men who had a degree of interlect other than eat, sleep and reproduce charted at least in their own minds, if not by some method of recording, the changes in seasons, day and night length.So these celebrations remain as part of a culture that existed for possibly hundreds of thousands of years, maybe longer. Go for it lads and lasses, celebrate the solstice in your own way. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: mousethief Date: 18 Jun 01 - 06:24 PM Thanks for the sarcasm, Eric. I meant the summer solstice has been called "midsummer's day" long before anyone said that summer BEGAN on that day. Alex |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Eric the Viking Date: 18 Jun 01 - 06:35 PM Only funning, I believe Shakesperes Midsummer night's dream was written for and about 24th June and as a child I was always taught the difference between the two dates. In school we had a mid summers day celebration on 24th of June-that I think is still the tradditional day for mid summer. The distinction between that and the solstice is common confusion.Solstice day being my birthday, and the time I was born I was told by my mother when she was alive was 04.21. So sunrise solstice for me. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: mousethief Date: 18 Jun 01 - 06:39 PM Actually the actual solstice and the 21st got to be quite a distance apart due to the errors in the Julian calendar, which wasn't wholly done away with (as a civil calendar) until the Russian Revolution. By that time I believe it was 13 days out of synch. Alex |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Eric the Viking Date: 18 Jun 01 - 06:48 PM I know, but as I wasn't around then and neither were you-I suspect ! Us with only a short living memory will have to make do with what we've got. As you said Alex the solstice was the solstice, no matter who or what mucks about with our earthly temporal calender. The longest day will remain, like the shortest and the equinoxes, until our planet's orbit slows down a bit more or we increase our distance from the sun to amke an appreciable difference in our (human) measurement of time. However, it's 23.047 over here and bedtime for me. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: mousethief Date: 18 Jun 01 - 06:54 PM Gnite! |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Eric the Viking Date: 18 Jun 01 - 06:58 PM Thanks, have a nice day.I'm really off now, well a cup of coffee and then to sleep. my wife has left the TV on in the bedroom, so I'll turn it of and put cold feet on her back. g'nite |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Peg Date: 19 Jun 01 - 01:45 AM (sigh) I was in England visiting sacred sites for solstice a year ago: Stonehenge, Avebury, the Rollrights, Glastonbury...spent twelve wonderful, magical days there. If I had not had to move this month, I would be leaving to go there again right about now. (sigh)
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Lonesome EJ Date: 19 Jun 01 - 02:17 AM Eric said "One explanation for mid summers day being only 3 days after the solstice is that our summers are so bloody horrible that by a week later it's raining again and so summer happens within a week (joke)" An interesting aside is that Shakespeare's work was written and performed during a period that modern climatologists call "the Little Ice Age", a period characterized by exceptionally cold and wet summers. In this regard, Shakespeare's play is an explanation of the weather in that year of 1587, as well as an attempt to invoke a change in it. When Titania speaks the lines
The seasons alter : hoary headed frosts Shakespeare is blaming the quarreling gods of nature for the late-blooming summer, and by depicting their reconciliation at the play's end, hopes in a rather pagan manner to invite the warmth of the season at last. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Lyndi-loo Date: 19 Jun 01 - 04:01 AM June 24th is the 687th Anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn (says she apropos of nothing much) |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Fibula Mattock Date: 19 Jun 01 - 05:16 AM I'm going to Avebury for the solstice to watch the sun rise. I bet it rains. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: GUEST,Shantyman Date: 19 Jun 01 - 05:46 AM It's all getting a bit technical for me. So I'll go to Alderly Edge and watch the Bhodran burning. Who knows we could then start on Melodeons? |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: John J Date: 19 Jun 01 - 06:35 AM Bitch! ;-) LOL JJ |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Skipjack K8 Date: 19 Jun 01 - 07:12 AM Fatal words, but the weather forecast for most of the stones looks favourable. We'll get a belt of rain tomorrow, followed by an anticyclone before the weekend. Take your macs! Skipjack |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: John J Date: 19 Jun 01 - 08:42 AM Allan (Shantyman) would be upset if it rained; the bodhrans wouldn't burn too well! Which official midsummers morning date are you going up to the Edge Allan? Fancy a meet up? If so, give me an O.S. map ref & time. John |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Peg Date: 19 Jun 01 - 11:15 AM Fibula; we went to Avebury for the day of solstice last year after staying up all night with the revellers at Stonehenge (cold, rainy, yucky). Later in the day after rain and clouds all day, the sun broke through and an enormous rainbow came out and arched over the entire village; we were at the Red Lion when it happened; every one stood around in wonder... I have a photo of it if I knew how t post a photo image here... Peg |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: lady penelope Date: 19 Jun 01 - 03:49 PM I shall probably be up and worrying about my last biology exam. Much prayer will probably be heard from around dawn to about 12 midday. And then I still have to go to work! AAAAAAAAAArrrrrgggghhh! |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: John J at home Date: 19 Jun 01 - 04:49 PM Why not go to the Jug for refreshment, relaxation, and the view of sunrise? Good lucj with the Biology exam! John |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: pavane Date: 20 Jun 01 - 08:08 AM Don't know about Midsummer morning, but the Men of Sweyn's Ey usually dance around Arthur's Stone in Gower near sunset on the Thursday nearest to the solstice. No real reason except that it's there, I think. I haven't checked if they will be there this week. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: GUEST,.gargoyle Date: 21 Jun 01 - 02:27 AM Exploring...new ways to burn,burn,burn, Let them turn, turn, turn Vixons, and wixons We are true to the druons |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Sarah the flute Date: 21 Jun 01 - 03:29 AM Damn ! woke up too late missed the sunrise I'm gutted |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: John J at home Date: 21 Jun 01 - 05:51 AM It's 10am as I write this. At 4.15am this morning, my eldest son and I drove to Alderley Edge (of Wizard, and Brissingamen fame) for sunrise. We parked the car alongside a few others and walked through the almost silent woods to the Edge. Rabbits ran around through the woodland, and a few birds flew overhead. We sat with our feet dangling over the Edge facing North East towards the hills of the Derbyshire Peak District. All the features of the foreground were perfectly visible in the subdued pre-sunrise light. There were a few clouds around, but not enough to spoil the morning; the all important horizon was perfectly clear. A few clouds well above the horizon were illuminated gently by the sun behind the hills. The sun peeped over the horizon and everything changed. The very light mist that had previously been invisible and sat in the folds of the land before us, became illuminated, hiding some of the features, yet showing off others. Very light shadows formed, silhouettes of trees, buildings (churches stood out well with their towers and spires), small hills. The sky changed from red to gold and back again, almost imperceptibly. The clouds almost became alive. Soon, as more of the sun rose beams of light around the shadows formed, exaggerating yet again the feature of the foreground. Later, as the golds and reds faded, the beams of light from the sun shone through the foreground towards us, adding yet another appearance to the countryside. We weren't alone on the Edge, a group of four and a group of two people were near us. The couple, like us, sat silently watching the spectacle. The group of four performed some sort of ritual; the stood variously holding hands in a circle, then facing the sun with arms outstretched, then held each other closely in a huddle. Soon after sunrise a group of four came to sit nearby. They may have seen the sunrise from somewhere else, but I rather think they missed it. There were others around on the Edge but we didn't see them. A horn was blown about five minutes after sunrise, somebody's whoops were heard through the woodland. Once the sun was clear of the horizon, the features began to lose their magical appearance, and things returned to normal. It was certainly a magical experience. My son was impressed by what he had seen, I was as glad about that as sceptical student I hadn't expected much but scorn for going tramping the countryside at that god-forsaken time of the morning…….'You're doing what? Why? You can see the sun ANY day' etc etc. But no, he enjoyed it. I took loads of photographs, but I'm no photographer. When the photos are developed they'll mean nothing to anyone else, but lots to me. We left for home after 40 minutes or so, and were soon climbing into our beds. Timothy could stay in bed all day if he wanted (he probably will), I had to be up for work around 8.00am. It's a good job a friend phoned me at 9.20am and woke me up! There are many advantages to being self employed, flexible hours being one of them A major disadvantage is: no work = no wages. I'll have another coffee and then cycle off to work! I can't wait until next year. John (The bleary) |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Lyndi-loo Date: 21 Jun 01 - 06:03 AM You disciplined people. It was as much as I could do to crawl ou of bed at 7.00 am. But getting up earlier would have been to no avail anyway. It was solid cloud in Ayrshire at that time. Maybe next year. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: MudGuard Date: 21 Jun 01 - 06:08 AM Erik, if solstice day is your birthday, then: Happy birthday to you (or is your birthday on the winter solstice?) I celebrated summer solstice by not waking up before 9 o'clock which is very very unusual for me - normally I am in the office at around 7o'clock. If I look at the weather forecast, I can't understand the discussion about midsummer day. It should be called midsummer hour - it was raining until two hours ago and I don't think the sunshine will hold for much longer than a few hours, there are lots of clouds to be seen already. MudGuard |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Noreen Date: 21 Jun 01 - 08:42 AM Lovely description, John J, thank you. I watched the sun emerge from behind the Pennine Moors, and the colours were just as you describe, with the addition of a rim of silver along the horizon just before the sun broke through. Stunningly beautiful. No badger this morning though, just the neighbour's cat who came for a cuddle while we watched the colours developing. (Not sure the cat was that impressed, though...) Noreen |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: pavane Date: 21 Jun 01 - 08:50 AM I accidentally set the alarm for 5:30 instead of 6:30, so I was NOT very popular this morning. But it was a lovely morning here in Wales. Unfortunately, the only badger I have seen in the last year was the dead one in the road yesterday. It's usually foxes we see. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: pavane Date: 21 Jun 01 - 08:51 AM Surely it IS also the Winter solstice, seen from the antipodes. |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: Moss Date: 21 Jun 01 - 08:57 AM Hello folks, A beautiful sunrise in St. John's Newfoundland and there'll be bonfires on the beaches all around the coast every clear night until June 24th--St. John's Day, here. We'll have a long weekend--Monday off. Lots of songs and sessions in the pubs and out in people's summer cabins. Anita |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: John J Date: 21 Jun 01 - 10:18 AM Sounds lovely Anita, I wish I could be there to join in the music and singing with you all. John |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: GUEST,SharonA Date: 21 Jun 01 - 10:39 AM Please explain "Morris sides" (from the original post by JohnJ) to the ignorant American. Thanks! SharonA |
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Subject: RE: Midsummer morn, anything happening? From: John J Date: 21 Jun 01 - 11:55 AM Hello Sharon, A Morris Side is a term used to describe a 'team' or perhaps 'troupe' (I'll get hung drawn and quartered every day for a month for using those terms!) of Morris Dancers. Does that help? John |
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