Summer Solstice 2019: How NYC Marks The Season's Start

NEW YORK, NY — The summer solstice marks the longest day of the year — and the beginning of the season of vacation days, pool dips and roof tanning in New York City.

Summer officially arrives in NYC at 11:54 a.m. Friday, June 21, at the moment the sun reaches the Tropic of Cancer, its highest point. The summer solstice is also the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

There will be 15 hours and five minutes of daylight on Friday. The sun rises at 5:24 a.m. and doesn't set until 8:30 p.m in NYC.

Here's how New York City is celebrating:

Summer Solstice Celebration: 32-01 Vernon Blvd, Long Island City

The Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens is bringing in the summer season with a festival from 6 to 10 p.m. The festival will include dancing, stargazing and learning in general about the way the cosmos above us functions.

Day Breaker NYC / Summer Solstice Sunrise: 599 Johnson Ave #1, Brooklyn

Day Breaker NYC is getting the summer solstice started early at the Elsewhere rooftop with a morning yoga class. The event goes from 5 to 8:30 a.m., and starts with a sunrise meditation and is followed by a yoga session with music.

Summer Solstice Concert with Ginetta's Vindetta: 218 West 11th Street, Manhattan

End your summer solstice day in style with the sweet sounds of the female powerhouse group. The concert runs from 10 to 11:30 p.m. and there are probably few better ways to celebrate the start of summer than dancing the night away.

Stargazing with Haik and Friends: 9 Rutherford Place, Manhattan

If you're anywhere near Stuyvesant Park this summer solstice, don't miss out on the chance to participate in some local stargazing. A powerful telescope will be on hand to help gaze up into our solar system on the longest day of the year.

Summer Solstice: Free Lunch in the Park with MealPal: Madison Square Park (Fifth Ave and 25th St.)

Celebrate the first day of summer with a free meal and good vibes in Madison Square Park in Manhattan from 12 to 2 p.m. Choose between a Chicken Shawarma Bowl or a Salmon Teriyaki Dish.

RSVP's and a download of the MealPal app are required for the free meal.

Here are four things to know about the summer solstice:

1. Native American tribes have long observed the summer solstice and many continue the rituals today. Tribes in present-day Wyoming constructed a "medicine wheel," a stone wheel with 28 spikes, at the top of Bighorn Moutain to observe the solstice. It was aligned with the sunrise and sunset of the solstice and is accessible only in the summer months.

2. Thousands will gather at Stonehenge, a Neolithic megalith monument in the south of England, to celebrate the summer solstice. Stonehenge, built around 2500 B.C., lines up perfectly with both the summer and winter solstices.

3. The summer solstice is steeped in pagan folklore and superstition. According to some accounts, people wore protective garlands of herbs and flowers to ward off evil spirits that appear on the summer solstice.

4. June 21 marks the beginning of winter in the Southern Hemisphere. The forecast high temperature for the first day of winter in Esperanza, located on the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (the coldest place on Earth), is 8 degrees.