Happy Litha!

 

 

It's almost time for Litha aka Midsummer/the Summer Solstice! This year it's on Tuesday 21st June (tomorrow!). I usually write posts with ideas for celebrating the sabbats and I've written several for Litha in the past few years. In 2021 I did a round-up of my previous posts, so for Litha 2022 (as with this past Beltane) I'm just going to share some links and ideas, rather than an in-depth post. :) 

 

Note: If you're in the Southern Hemisphere,  you'll be celebrating Yule/the Winter Solstice! You might like this post:

Yule Round-up + Yule/Christmas Baking; https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2021/12/yule-round-up-yulechristmas-baking.html

Litha is the 2nd summer festival (or 2nd sabbat associated with summer) on the Wheel of the Year, coming after Beltane at the end of April/beginning of May (a spring festival which also marks the shift from spring to summer) and before Lammas in late July/early August (which is about the end of summer and moving into autumn; also the first harvest festival).

Litha is also the Summer Solstice, the time of the longest day and shortest night (in the Northern Hemisphere). Days have been growing longer since Yule/the Winter Solstice in December, the direct opposite of Litha when we have the shortest day and longest night. To read a bit more about the Summer Solstice, visit my Litha Inspiration post from 2019: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2019/06/litha-inspiration_17.html

 You can also read more about it here: https://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-summer-summer-solstice

The scientific time of the solstice (when the North Pole tilts furthest towards the sun) will be 10.13am BST/5.14am EDT. To find the time in your country visit this link (click on "Local times for the solstice worldwide"): https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/summer-solstice.html

The Summer Solstice is considered the "official" start of summer (astronomical), although 1st June is also sometimes seen as the start of it (meteorological) And it's called "midsummer" as well which does get confusing! I think it's mainly because this time of year is the midpoint of summer astronomically. I've written a bit about the reasons for this in my 2020 Litha + Summer Inspiration post which you can see here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/06/litha-summer-inspiration.html

Litha is a fire festival (although it is not one of the Greater Sabbats which are also known as Fire Festivals, it has associations with fire) and its other themes include light and abundance. I wrote last year that it represents possibility to me too. 

 

Here is my 2021 Litha round-up of my previous posts: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2021/06/litha-round-up.html

 

And here are some posts from other sites:

15 Simple Ways to Celebrate Litha: https://otherworldlyoracle.com/celebrate-litha/

6 simple Summer Solstice spells from Tess Whitehurst: https://tesswhitehurst.com/six-super-simple-summer-solstice-spells/

Secular Summer Solstice (for those who don't necessarily follow a particular pagan path): https://www.flyingthehedge.com/2022/06/secular-summer-solstice-by-lizzie-burgess.html

35 crafts, DIY projects and decor ideas for the Summer Solstice/Litha (Witchcrafted Life): https://witchcraftedlife.com/35-stellar-summer-solstice-crafts-diy-projects-and-decor-ideas-for-litha-midsummer/

Plus, since Litha is on a weekday this year, I thought I'd share this post from Penniless Pagan about celebrating weekday sabbats:  http://www.pennilesspagan.com/2016/07/weekday-sabbats.html

 

I usually make salad and lemonade for Litha. This year I'm making my favourite tomato and onion salad, using a recipe from The Kitchen Witch book by Soraya. You can see a picture here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2016/07/litha-2016.html

I don't think the recipe is online but I shared some links to other salad recipes in my Litha + Summer Inspiration post in 2020: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2020/06/litha-summer-inspiration.html

This Italian salad is pretty similar: https://thisitaliankitchen.com/italian-tomato-onion-salad/

The recipe uses red onion. I normally use "ordinary" (brown/yellow) onions but a couple of times I've used red, since I liked the red onion in the Kachumbari (Kenyan tomato and onion salad) I've made for Beltane in recent years.

I also made this potato salad last year (which I first made for Eurovision!): https://applytofaceblog.com/potato-salad/

My favourite lemonade to make is what I call "Hello Kitty lemonade" since the recipe is from a Hello Kirty book! You can see the recipe here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2013/08/summer-drinks.html

I've made rice pudding for the past few years as well, an idea inspired by the Llewellyn's 2017 Sabbats Almanac. 

 

Two more things I like to do are light a candle (since Litha is a fire festival) and take sunset pics. I've got a yellow candle (nice colour for celebrating light and the sun) this year. I enjoy taking pictures of the sunset out in nature during the warmer months and I usually go to my favourite nature reserve on a hill for Litha.  

 

Hope that gave you some ideas for celebrating! This time last year we were opening up more after our 3rd lockdown in England. It has been a weird couple of years and things have still been quite hard in general. Hope everyone is doing ok. :) How are you planning to celebrate Litha? Or Yule?

I will do a post on my celebrations next week. Happy Litha! (Or Happy Yule!) :) 

Photo: Buckingham Park, Shoreham-by-sea. Moonsparkle 2022.