June 2021 Parenta Magazine

Celebrating Summer Solstice
June is the month of the year when we all look forward to enjoying some warm weather, lighter
evenings, and a long-awaited summer holiday. It is also the month of the Summer Solstice – the
longest day of the year which officially marks the start of summer.
A little bit of astronomy
Our earth revolves around the sun once
every 365.25 days, which we know as
a year. However, as well as orbiting the
sun, the earth also spins on its own axis
(the imaginary line running from the
North to the South Pole), taking 24 hours
to complete a full rotation and creating
hours of daylight and darkness, which
we call day and night. But that doesn’t
explain why we get seasons (spring,
summer, autumn, and winter), or why we
have some days that have more daylight
(in summer) and some days that have
less daylight (in winter).
This happens because the earth is not
in an upright position relative to the
sun, but is tilted at an angle of 23.5
degrees from the vertical. As the earth
revolves around the sun, the tilt of the
axis remains the same. So, when it is
summer in the northern hemisphere, the
northern hemisphere is tilted towards
the sun, whilst the southern hemisphere
is tilted away from the sun, thereby
experiencing winter. When the earth gets
to the opposite side of the sun in its orbit,
the situation is reversed, and it is winter
in the northern hemisphere and summer
in the southern hemisphere. That’s why
the Australians can enjoy their Christmas
lunch on the beach, while we build
snowmen and snuggle up with a hot
cocoa! The earth’s tilt also explains why
we have seasons and why the amount
of daylight we get varies throughout the
year. There’s a good video for children
which explains the movement of the
earth and why we have seasons here.
So, what is the Summer
Solstice?
The Summer Solstice marks the point
in the year where the earth reaches
its closest inclination to the sun (which
is not the same as its closest distance
from the sun, however). In the northern
hemisphere, this will be on Monday, June
21, 2021. This will be the Winter Solstice
in the southern hemisphere. It is also
the day that the UK receives the most
hours of daylight during the year, but the
exact amount of daylight we get varies
according to location. The North Pole
has constant daylight at this time of year
as it is angled towards the sun, whilst
the South Pole experiences continual
darkness. Daylight at the equator is
constant throughout the year with equal
amounts of daylight and darkness.
At Stonehenge in Salisbury, thought by
some to be an ancient astronomical
calendar, Midsummer’s Day will see the
first rays of sun at 04:52 and say goodbye
to them at 21:26 giving almost 17 hours
of daylight. Although, as we well know
in the UK, daylight hours are not the
same as sunshine hours, as our weather,
clouds, and rain can get in the way of
that, but even if this happens, the sun is
still out there….somewhere!
How to celebrate Summer
Solstice in your setting
Summer Solstice is the perfect time to
celebrate everything warm and sunny
with your children, so here are 17 different
ideas to help your little ones celebrate
– one for each hour (or part hour) of
daylight on Midsummer’s Day!
1. Make a sun and earth mobile using
pom-poms or simple circles of
coloured card
2. Plant some seeds – cosmos, dianthus
and nasturtiums are easy to grow,
and should do well if planted at this
time of year
3. Make some sunshine headdresses
or masks or use some face paint to
create representations of the sun and
the earth – then create a dance or act
out the earth moving around the sun
and spinning on its axis
4. Listen to some classical music –
Vivaldi’s “Summer” from his “Four
Seasons” is calming and evokes long
summer days
5. Celebrate with a Midsummer fete or
festival – make sure you serve the
quintessential British summer treat of
strawberries and cream
6. Press some summer flowers and
make them into a solstice greeting
card
7. Create some sunrise or sunset
pictures – you can use different
shades of paper cut out in increasing
sized semi-circles to create the
sunrise/sunset
8. Watch the sunrise live at Stonehenge
via a live link on Facebook here (if you
are up early enough) or watch it in
your setting later on YouTube (so you
can have some extra time in bed!)
9. Make some fairy peg dolls and
have the children create a dance
on Midsummer’s Day – in folklore,
Midsummer is traditionally a day
when magic is strongest, and fairies
and pixies can get up to mischief!
10. Make a simple sundial by using a
long stick and some coloured or
painted stones. Push the stick into the
ground outside in the full sun and use
the stones to mark where the shadow
falls each hour. You can find some
instructions here
11. Make some summer-inspired treats
such as lemon fairy cakes, butterfly
cakes or decorate some pancakes
with sunny faces using bananas,
strawberries, grapes, and raisins
12. Learn some English country dances
based on the idea of circles and
rotation
13. Tell a simplified version of
Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s
Dream” in storytime or read some
educational books based on summer
such as “What can you see in
summer?” by Sian Smith, or “A Perfect
Day” by Lane Smith
14. Make a daisy or dandelion chain,
or a flower headdress to mark the
occasion
15. Meditate with your children, giving
thanks for the day, and incorporate
some simple yoga poses to
strengthen balance and body
awareness
16. Sing some songs that celebrate
summer – a YouTube search using
“summer songs for kids” brings up
many favourite songs as well as
some new ones you might like to try
17. And finally, sit around a small bonfire
(following all safety precautions,
of course) and toast some
marshmallows – the perfect end to a
perfect summer’s day!
And if all that fails, and it does rain….
make a colourful fake fire inside and
eat the marshmallows anyway!
30 June 2021 | parenta.com
parenta.com | June 2021 31