Litha

Yesterday (21st June) was Litha, otherwise known as Midsummer, which is another of the sabbats. It's the Summer Solstice, the time of the longest day and shortest night, and takes place around 21st June each year in the northern hemisphere. (In the southern hemisphere it's reversed and yesterday was their Yule/Midwinter). :)

From now on the days will get shorter and the nights longer (although it won't be really noticeable for a few weeks yet) until Yule/the Winter Solstice (around 21st December) which is the shortest day of the year. After that the days will gradually get longer until we get to Litha again. (If you live in the southern hemisphere, it's the other way around, Yule is around 21st June and Litha around 21st December). :) 

Despite being called "Midsummer" which makes you think it's the middle of the season, Litha is seen as the first official day of summer. (Although Beltane marked the beginning of summer season). The Goddess is pregnant with the God after conceiving at Beltane. The Sun God is at the height of his power now. At Yule he will be born again. The colours for Litha are yellow, gold, blue and green.

As I mentioned in my Yule post, a Wiccan belief is that each half of the year is ruled over by the Holly King or the Oak King. Since Yule, the Oak King has ruled over the lighter half of the year and now he does battle again with the Holly King and loses. The Holly King now rules over the darkening year until Yule when they do battle again.

It's traditional for people to rise early to greet the sun at Litha and Stonehenge is very popular at this time of year! Also some Wiccans re-enact the battle between the Oak and Holly Kings. This is also a good season for picnics.

I had salad to celebrate Litha, tomato, chopped up carrot sticks, cucumber and lettuce with some potato salad, coleslaw, chicken and hard boiled egg. Then afterwards I had some ice cream with crumbled up digestive biscuits (as suggested in The Real Witches' Kitchen book). The ice cream was a "No Churn" one that I made a few weeks ago. I'm planning to do a post on ice cream in the future. Here's a link to the site where I found the recipe (I made the Funfetti Cake Batter one): https://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2014/04/amazing-no-churn-ice-cream-6-flavors.html

I had some cloudy lemonade to drink. I thought afterwards it would have been good to make some lemonade myself, especially because I don't like the Tesco cloudy lemonade so much these days. I don't think it used to be no added sugar. Maybe next year I'll make some Hello Kitty lemonade which I've made in the past. :)

Salad

Cake batter ice cream and biscuits

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, my camera broke so I used my BlackBerry camera. :)


Summer is my favourite time of year. I hope you enjoy the summer season. :)


For more on Litha visit these links:

https://www.goddessandgreenman.co.uk/litha

https://wiccaliving.com/wiccan-calendar-litha-summer-solstice/