How should you celebrate the first day of summer?

A quick pop quiz for you: What is the official first day of summer? It’s June 21, also known as the Summer Solstice, which derives its name from the Latin words sol (sun) and stitium (to stop), due to the fact that the sun appears to stop on this day—and again at the winter solstice. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, the day with the most hours of sunlight, and it has been celebrated in a variety of ways throughout the centuries (http://bit.ly/1gxXaGU). 

At Stonehenge in Salisbury, England, ancient peoples celebrated with an all-night party, dancing around the enormous stone circle which, mysteriously, aligns with the rising solstice sun. In Egypt during the summer solstice, the sun sits right between two of the pyramids when viewed from the Sphinx. In Greece, the Greek god of agriculture, Cronus, was honored during the festival Kronia. In the Roman Empire, Vesta, the goddess of the hearth was honored in a summertime festival called Vestalia. In Asia, the Chinese honored the summer solstice as a celebration of femininity and the earth, the direct opposite of the celebration during the winter solstice of masculinity and the heavens (http://bit.ly/1iQ4z7h). 

In northern Europe, Celtic, Slavic and Germanic couple would leap over bonfires during the summer solstice in the hopes that their crops would grow as high as the lovers had jumped, but today we celebrate the coming of summer in different ways (http://bit.ly/1iQ4z7h). 

Read on for our Top 10 summertime celebration activities.

1.       Light a bonfire.

2.       Go fishing.

3.       Read a book.

4.       Watch the stars rise in the sky.

5.       Grill out.

6.       Go camping.

7.       Watch the birds.

8.       Tend to your garden.

9.       Get pampered.

10.   Play volleyball at JB’s on 41. 

Have a carefree and happy summer, bowlers!