Summer Solstice Marks Beginning Of Fun In Huntersville

HUNTERSVILLE, NC — Summer arrives in Huntersville at 11:54 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time 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 and, for many of us, the beginning of the season of fun.

There will be 14 hours and 33 minutes of daylight on Friday. The sun rises at 6:08 a.m. and sets at 8:41 p.m. in Huntersville.

The Huntersville area has oodles of fun summer activities. Here are a few to get on your calendar:

• Symphony in the Park & Fireworks, Cornelius — Saturday, June 22, Bailey Road Park, 11536 Bailey Road, Cornelius. 6 p.m. , free.Bring your picnic baskets, blankets and chairs and join us for an evening with the Charlotte Symphony. The free KidZone will be open from 6 - 8 pm. Concessions will be available for purchase throughout the evening. Wine and craft beer proceeds benefit Lake Norman Wildlife Conservationalists. Coolers and picnic baskets are welcome! Gates open at 6 pm; fireworks immediately follow the performance.
• Latta Enduro Sprint, Huntersville — Saturday, June 22, 7 a.m. New in 2019, the Tri Latta Triathlon becomes the Latta Enduro Sprint. We're excited to be bringing North Carolina triathletes an exciting new twist for 2019 Latta Enduro Sprint is part of the new Formula 1 Grand Prix Series.
• July 4th Celebration, Huntersville — Birkdale Village, 16725 Birkdale Commons Parkway, Huntersville. 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. join us for a fun filled day to celebrate July 4th! As always, bring your bike and after decorating it, join us for the parade. The Huntersville Fire Department will be on hand to cool us down with their ladder truck.
• 4th of July Celebration, Charlotte — U.S. National Whitewater Center, 5000 Whitewater Center Parkway, Charlotte. This is the ninth year of the two-day festival features outdoor adventure, yoga, live music, and spectacular firework displays.
• Rent a kayak or canoe — Saturday, June. Every summer during the summer months, the town's parks and recreation department makes paddle boards, kayaks, and canoes available for rental at the Lake Davidson Nature Preserve. In June, the rentals are available on Saturday, June 22 and June 29.

Solstice comes from the Latin words “sol” and “sistere,” and it literally means “sun stands still.” While June 21 is generally recognized as the first day of summer, no authoritative body has ever deemed when the seasons start. For example, Earthsky.org notes that in meteorology, summer starts on June 1.

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Here are five 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 Mountain, to observe the solstice. It was aligned with the sunrise and sunset on the solstice, and is accessible only in the summer months. Similar wheels have been found in South Dakota, Montana and parts of Canada. Another ceremonial ritual is the Sundance, originated by the Sioux tribe in the western and northwestern U.S., because it was believed the sun was a manifestation of the Great Spirit. The four-day celebration of singing, dancing, drumming, prayer and meditation, and skin piercing concluded with a ceremonial felling of a tree, symbolic of the connection between the heavens and Earth.

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. There are some conspiracy theories about the formation of rocks — including that Stonehenge was built as a landing zone for alien aircraft, according to Popular Mechanics. A more believable explanation is that Stonehenge was built as an ancient calendar to mark the passing of time.

3. Not all cultures called June 21 the summer solstice and it meant different things to different people. According to History.com, in northern Europe, the longest day of the year was known as Midsummer, while Wiccans and other Negopagan groups called it Litha, and some Christian churches called it St. John’s Day in commemoration of the birth of John the Baptist. On ancient Greek calendars, the summer solstice and the beginning of a new year coincided, and it also marked the one-month countdown to the opening of the Olympic games.

4. 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. Among the most powerful, according to History.com, was “chase devil,” known today as St. John’s Wort because of its association with St. John’s Day. Lore also holds that bonfires on Midsummer, as the solstice was known among northern Europeans, would banish demons and evil spirits and lead young maidens to their future husbands. Also, the ashes from a summer solstice bonfires not only protected people against misfortune, but also carried the promise of a bountiful harvest.

5. 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, with a low of minus 3. However, at the height of summer in December, January and February, the average temperature is only around 32 degrees.