Litha 2024

On the Thursday before last (20th June) it was Litha aka Midsummer/the Summer Solstice. As I said in my Salads for Litha + Extra Ideas! post, I normally make salad and lemonade for this sabbat. 

This year I made my favourite tomato and onion salad (the recipe is from Soraya's book The Kitchen Witch). While in past years I've varied it by using red onion or a mix of brown/yellow and red onion, this time I just used brown. The lemonade is "Hello Kitty lemonade" (the recipe is from a Hello Kitty book).

I had the salad for lunch with some Dorito dippers and smashed avocado, chicken, seeded rolls, cheese and pickle, and stuffed peppers (with cheese). It was quite nice. Here's a picture: 

Salads for Litha/Summer + Extra Ideas!

It's nearly time for Litha/the Summer Solstice! This year it's on Thursday 20th June. The actual moment/time of the solstice will be 9.51 BST/3.51pm CDT. You can find your local time here: https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/summer-solstice.html

In the past I've written several posts with ideas for celebrating the sabbats. I decided to stop writing more in-depth posts last year (because I'd already covered them) but continue to share about my celebrations and write more sabbat themed posts if I felt inspired to.

This Beltane I wrote a post called Salads for Beltane and Extra + Ideas!. I enjoyed writing that, so I thought I'd do a similar one for Litha, since summer is starting and we're in "salad season"! I've called the post Salads for Litha/Summer because they would be good for any time during the summer. I'm also sharing some extra ideas for celebrating. :)

 

Here are my most recent Litha posts:

Happy Litha!: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/06/happy-litha.html

Shifting into Summer (includes some links about Litha): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2023/06/shifting-into-summer.html 

Note: If you're in the Southern Hemisphere,  it's almost time for Yule/the Winter Solstice! You might like this post:

Happy Yule!: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/12/happy-yule.html

 

My main celebration for the sabbats is making/having food and drink. As with Beltane, I usually have salad for Litha. It fits the theme because it's the beginning of summer and the days are (hopefully!) getting warmer and brighter. I like to drink lemonade as well. (If you're not keen on salad, you can find some alternative celebration suggestions in my previous Litha posts and under the Extra Ideas section below.)

 

Salads

All the salads mentioned in the Beltane post would also be good for Litha: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2024/04/salads-for-beltane-extra-ideas.html

 

Tomato and Onion Salad

One of my favourite salads to make for Litha is a tomato and onion one from The Kitchen Witch book by Soraya. You can see a pic here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2016/07/litha-2016.html

It's quite simple to make, the recipe is made up of tomato and onion, garlic, salt and black pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. I most often use brown/yellow onion but it's also good with red onion, which I've used for Litha some years. I was inspired to use red onion after making kachumbari for Beltane (see below). Last Litha I made it with both brown and red onion.