Summer solstice traditions and sun worship

In Northern and Central European Neolithic cultures, the summer solstice may have been related to timings of crop cycles. It was typically marked by Celtic, Slavic and Germanic people by lighting bonfires, intended to boost the sun’s strength for the remainder of the crop season and ensure a healthy harvest.

Numerous Neolithic stone circles also appear to have been built around the movement of the sun at solstices, although, as there are no written accounts from the time, it is difficult to be definitive about the exact purposes of these rock edifices. However stones appear to be carefully positioned to align with the sun’s movements, framing solar motion on summer and winter solstices, and stones at particular solstice axes were even shaped with hammerstones to frame the sunrise for those standing at the centre of the circle.

Though it might seem that the middle of summer would naturally fall on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice and Midsummer’s Day are actually distinct events, normally a few days apart between 20 and 24 June. The difference is thought to stem from variations in the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

The longest day has been marked in different ways over the years and has its own set of customs. Some are based on practical needs. Others originate from spiritual and superstitious beliefs.

Mysticism and magic are a common theme in midsummer folklore across the world. Magic was thought to be strongest during the summer solstice and myths told stories of the world turning upside down or the sun standing still at midsummer.

As Ronald Hutton, Professor of History at the University of Bristol, put it, it was seen as 'a time when the normal laws of nature or divinity could be suspended, when spirits and fairies could contact humans, when humans could exceed the usual limitations of their world.’

In an 1855 oil painting from Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire, Scottish painter William Bell Scott depicts pixies dancing by firelight. In a letter that Scott himself wrote in 1886, he spoke of the painting as showing ‘fairies dancing before a great dying kitchen fire … at a Haunted House on Midsummer’s Eve.’ 

Observing the longest day is not limited to the Western world. Many ancient cultures and communities had unique traditions centred around midsummer. 

Sun worship took on particular significance in Ancient Egyptian religions. The summer solstice aligned with the rise of the river Nile and the deity of the sun, Ra (known later during the New Kingdom as Amun-Ra), became one of Ancient Egypt’s most important gods. Ra was considered creator of life and ruler of the sun, the sky and kings, and was widely commemorated in monuments and artefacts.

Before the invention of clocks, the position of the sun not only indicated the changing of the seasons; it was also used for telling the time. Sundials were used to show the hours of the day, based on the movement of the shadow of the sun as it moves across the sky each day. Sundials, both large and small, can be found in many of the collections we look after.