Litha

Litha (taken from Saxon tradition, the opposite of Yule) is celebrated on the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. It is also known as Midsummer Nights Eve, Alban Heruin (Druidic). On this Sabbat light and life are at their most abundant. Many Ancient monuments are aligned with the Sun at this point in the Wheel of the Year, the most famous being Stonehenge in England, though there are many more all over the world.

At Litha the Sun God has reached the moment of his greatest strength. Seated on his greenwood throne he is lord of the forests and his face can be seen in church architecture peering from countless foliate masks. In many Wiccan celebrations this is the time when the Holly King, God of the Waning Year, encounters the Oak King, God of the waxing Year, on Midsummer night. The Holly king fights the Oak King for his throne, and takes over the ruling of the year, a position he holds until the Oak King wins it back at Yule. This encounter is often re-enacted energetically at Midsummer rituals. The Oak King is not forgotten, though; in Celtic mythology, he withdraws now to the Corona Borealis, the Caer Arianrhod or 'silver wheel'. As the outer strength of the Sun wanes, its inner strength grows.

The Holly King and the Oak King are actually one; the Holly King is the growing youth while the Oak King is the mature man. In other traditions tis not until Samhain that the Holly King triumphs, (as the year moves into the dark half), he may also be seen as the Stag King, in his prime with full antlers, not yet ready for his symbolic sacrifice at Harvest Time.

This Sabbat also celebrates the Goddess in some traditions. She can be seen now as heavy with child, as nature is heavy with the bounty of the coming harvest, though in some Traditions although she is already pregnant (with the God) her 'time' is not yet ready, as she will not give birth to the God until Yule.

Litha is a Fire Festival, and the fire of Midsummer is traditionally kindled from the friction of two sacred woods, fir and oak. Nine different types of herbs are thrown upon the Midsummer fire. These consist of Mistletoe, Vervain, St. John's Wort, Heartsease, Lavender, and a choice of four others chosen from local herbs typical of this season. In agricultural societies, herds of cattle were driven through the embers of Midsummer fired to purge them of disease and illness. Many Litha customs involve the turning or rolling downhill of flaming wheels, to symbolize the power of the Sun.

Litha is a time to give thanks for whatever is bringing fulfilment into our lives, and also a time to try and understand our passions, the wildest and most fervent aspects of our inner selves, within us which are often at their most evident in the height of the summer. The fire which we celebrate at Litha is a symbol of change and creativity, and this is a perfect time to put our passions to good use in bringing about changes in our lives.

This is considered to be a time when energies abound, and is a good time for magic and purification rites. Midsummer Night's Eve is also special for adherents of the Faerie faith. The alternative fixed calendar date of June 25 (Old Litha) is sometimes employed by Covens. The Christian religion converted this day of Jack-in-the-Green to the Feast of St. John the Baptist, often portraying him in rustic attire sometimes with horns and cloven feet (like the Greek God Pan and similar in aspect to the Celtic Cerunnos).

Technically, a solstice is an astronomical point and, due to the procession to the equinox, the date may vary by a few days depending on the year. The summer solstice occurs when the sun reaches the Tropic of Cancer, and we experience the longest day and the shortest night of the year. Astrologers know this as the date on which the sun enters the sign of Cancer.

However, since most European peasants were not accomplished at reading an ephemeris or did not live close enough to Salisbury Plain to trot over to Stonehenge and sight down its main avenue, they celebrated the event on a fixed calendar date, June 24th. The slight forward displacement of the traditional date is the result of multitudinous calendrical changes down through the ages. It is analogous to the winter solstice celebration, which is astronomically on or about December 21st, but is celebrated on the traditional date of December 25th, Yule, later adopted by the Christians.

Again, it must be remembered that the Celts reckoned their days from sundown to sundown, so the June 24th festivities actually begin on the previous sundown (our June 23rd). This was Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Eve. Which brings up another point: our modern calendars are quite misguided in suggesting that 'summer begins' on the solstice. According to the old folk calendar, summer BEGINS on May Day and ends on Lammas (August 1st), with the summer solstice, midway between the two, marking MID-summer. This makes more logical sense than suggesting that summer begins on the day when the sun's power begins to wane and the days grow shorter.

Just as the Pagan mid-winter celebration of Yule was adopted by Christians as Christmas (December 25th), so too the Pagan mid-summer celebration was adopted by them as the feast of John the Baptist (June 24th). Occurring 180 degrees apart on the wheel of the year, the mid-winter celebration commemorates the birth of Jesus, while the mid-summer celebration commemorates the birth of John, the prophet who was born six months before Jesus in order to announce his arrival