Today is the longest day of the year!
Some of the celebrations that are happening are:
Jaanipäev (Estonia)
Tiregān (Iran)
Jāņi (Latvia)
Wianki (Poland)
Juhannus (Finland)
Gathering Day (Wales)
Kupala fertility rite
Feill-Sheathain (Scotland)
Kupala Night (Ukraine, Belarus, Russia)
All Couple’s Day (Greece)
Feast of Epona (from ancient Gaul)
Litha (from ancient Rome)
Saint Jonas' Festival (Lithuania)
Midsummer
Most Americans use this day to stay out and have a long day of barbecue and picnics. Now I write at the night most of the time and this is the shortest night of the year, so this is a hard day for writing for me. It is a great day for being out and getting some amazing ideas.
The seasons are a great source of inspiration. Seasons change and as you watch the world and it’s changing colors can give you some amazing ideas. You can get something just from watching these changes. Summer is where you can go out and pick fruit and vegetables from the garden. Or even just flowers when you are taking a walk. Things tend to be brighter and more vibrant, almost as if everything is like isn’t it great to be alive.
There are also brilliant legends from this time of year. So much of which is dealing with the Fae. Many authors have used this as a backdrop to their stories. It is something to look into when wanting to write anything about the Fae or Faerie Folk. Even the great authors like Shakespeare tried their hand at it.
The traditions that are wrapped around this day are old and all over the world. Every religion has some type of celebration for the longest day of the year. This to can be something that can help inspire you in looking at the history of the celebrations themselves.
I personally love Midsummer for the daylight and the joy of spending it with my family. How it inspires my writing is using the world around me and tweaking what I see. Since right now I am working in Urban Fantasy it is interesting to take the world around me and add a bit of magic and a touch of grit to it too. I hope to one day to write a story based on the Fae during the Midsummer antics, but that is for another tale.
I hope that your longest day is a good one with great joy and good food.
(All images except the last one are from https://pixabay.com. I took the last picture using my iPhone 6 Plus.)
