16 Hours Of Daylight: Summers Solstice Events In Seattle Area

SEATTLE, WA — Puget Sound will have about 16 hours of (potentially cloudy) daylight during the summer solstice on Thursday, the longest day of the year. The sun rises at 5:11 a.m. and sets at 9:10 p.m.

What can you do with all that daylight? A lot, like seeing the Wu-Tang Clan, celebrating Seattle Pride, or preparing your costume for the Fremont Solstice Parade on Saturday — or one of these events:

Soulstice at the Seattle Center: This free festival at the Mural Amphitheater will feature free music, plus palm readings, jugglers, stilt dancers, food, and prize giveaways. 5:30 to 9 p.m., 305 Harrison St, Seattle.

Solstice Goddess Show: Celebrate the "sacred feminine" at this art show at Seattle's Gargoyle Statuary. 6 to 9 p.m., 4550 University Way Northeast, Seattle.

Make Music Day 2019: Enjoy free music all day long along the Seattle waterfront beginning at noon. 12 to 8 p.m., 1401 Alaskan Way, Seattle.

AVP Seattle Open 2019: A day of beach volleyball is one of the more appropriate ways to spend the first day of summer. Plus it's free. 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Lake Sammamish State Park, Issaquah.

Kirkland Wine Walk: This Hawaiian-themed wine walk talks place across shops and galleries in downtown Kirkland. Not free, but you can buy tickets here. 6 p.m., The Heathman Hotel, 220 Kirkland Ave.

Bellevue Summer Solstice Party: Take advantage of solstice drink specials and soak up the sun (maybe) from the porch at the W Bellevue hotel. 6 p.m., 10455 Northeast 5th Place, Bellevue.

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.

Patch editor Beth Dalbey contributed to this report