40 Fun Facts About Summer Solstice

Which African animal is celebrated with a World Day on 21 June, chosen as the longest day of the year?

Giraffe conservationists matched the tallest animal with the longest day. The Giraffe Conservation Foundation, which began its work in Namibia, launched World Giraffe Day.

Huge crowds mark each summer solstice in New York's Times Square by joining a mass session of which activity?

Yoga fills Times Square each solstice in an event called Mind over Madness, drawing up to 15,000 people. The United Nations also keeps 21 June as the International Day of Yoga.

In which country do Midsummer revellers dance around a leafy maypole to a song about little frogs?

Sweden's frog dance, Små grodorna, has dancers mime the ears and tails that frogs lack. Midsummer is so loved there that some have proposed making it the national day.

Which property of planet Earth, rather than its changing distance from the Sun, causes the summer solstice and seasons?

Axial tilt leans the Northern Hemisphere toward the Sun in June, so sunlight strikes it more directly and for longer. Six months later the same lean points it away.

Which senior British royal has a birthday on 21 June, the date most associated with the summer solstice?

Prince William was born at 9:03 pm on 21 June 1982 at St Mary's Hospital in London. Queen Elizabeth II, his grandmother, was on the throne at the time.

Which prehistoric monument on England's Salisbury Plain is aligned with the sunrise on the summer solstice?

Stonehenge frames the solstice sunrise: an observer among the stones sees the Sun come up near the outlying Heel Stone. An open solstice event in 2000 drew about seven thousand people.

In Australia and the rest of the Southern Hemisphere, the summer solstice falls in which month of the year?

December brings the Southern Hemisphere its longest day, on the 21st or 22nd. The very same moment is the shortest day of the year for everyone north of the Equator.

Which fruit gives its name to June's full moon, the one that rises around the time of the summer solstice?

Strawberry Moon is the traditional name for June's full moon, and it has nothing to do with colour. Algonquian peoples used it to mark the weeks when ripe berries are ready to gather.

On which continent is Midwinter Day, marked with a grand meal at the June solstice, the main holiday of the year?

Antarctica treats Midwinter Day as its main holiday, because the June solstice is the darkest point of the polar year. Early explorers feasted on penguin and seal, which is now illegal.

North of which line of latitude does the Sun stay above the horizon all night on the June solstice?

The Arctic Circle marks the southern limit of the midnight sun on the June solstice. Farther north the effect lasts longer: Tromsø in Norway has it from about 20 May to late July.

On the June solstice, the noon Sun sits directly overhead along which imaginary line around the globe?

Tropic of Cancer is the northernmost line where the Sun can be seen directly overhead. It was named when the solstice Sun sat in the zodiac sign of the Crab; today it sits in Taurus.

The word solstice comes from two Latin words describing the Sun doing what at the top of its yearly climb?

The Sun stands still, or seems to: solstice joins the Latin sol and sistere. Its seasonal drift across the sky reaches a limit, pauses, then reverses direction.

In the Northern Hemisphere, toward which compass direction does the Sun rise on the morning of the summer solstice?

Northeast is where the midsummer Sun comes up, not due east as many assume. It then climbs high across the southern sky and sets in the northwest.

Unlike a solstice, which twice-yearly event in March and September brings nearly equal hours of day and night?

Equinox comes from the Latin for equal night. Day and night are not quite equal even then, because the Sun's disc has width and the atmosphere bends its light.

Which scientists begin Northern Hemisphere summer on 1 June instead of waiting three weeks for the solstice?

Meteorologists group the seasons into whole calendar months, so their summer runs from June through August. An early international weather society set out the scheme in 1780.

On Sankthansaften, Denmark's midsummer bonfire night, an effigy of what figure is traditionally set on top of the fire?

A witch tops many Danish bonfires, and as she burns she is said to fly off to the Brocken, a mountain in Germany. The fires were once lit to keep witches away.

Which Alaskan city hosts the Midnight Sun Game, a solstice baseball game played late at night without artificial lights?

Fairbanks has staged the game on the summer solstice since 1906. First pitch comes at about 10:30 pm and play runs on past 1 am in natural daylight.

Inti Raymi, the Inca sun festival held days after the June solstice, draws huge crowds to Cusco in which country?

Peru lies south of the Equator, so its June solstice is the shortest day of the year. The Inca treated it as their new year, when the hours of light begin to lengthen again.

Which country started World Music Day, the festival of free street concerts held on the June solstice each year?

France launched it in Paris in 1982 as the Fête de la Musique, an idea backed by culture minister Jack Lang. It has since spread to about 120 countries.

Which Russian city marks the weeks around the summer solstice with its White Nights Festival?

St Petersburg lies so far north that from late April to late August its night sky never gets fully dark. The festival has been held every year since 1993.

Which city, the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state, stays light all night around the June solstice?

Reykjavik has essentially permanent daylight from 20 May to 24 July, because the Sun never dips more than 5 degrees below the horizon. It lies just over 64 degrees north.

Which robed order, once mocked by the press for fake beards, leads summer solstice rites at British megaliths?

Druids of the modern revival admitted 259 new members in one mass ceremony in 1905. Their faith has no real continuity with the ancient Celtic priesthood whose name it borrows.

In Nordic Midsummer folklore, a young woman who sleeps with seven flowers under her pillow will dream of whom?

Her future husband is the hoped-for vision, and the custom is practised to this day. Italy has a twin tradition: rose petals under the pillow on the night before St John's Day.

Which country chose 21 June, the summer solstice, as the date of its National Indigenous Peoples Day?

Canada first marked the day in 1996, honouring First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. The solstice was chosen partly because many communities already celebrated their heritage then.

Which South American country's June festivals, with bonfires and straw hats, grew out of Europe's midsummer feasts?

Brazil's Festas Juninas arrived with Portuguese settlers, but June there is midwinter. Men dress as farm boys in big straw hats while women wear pigtails and red checked dresses.

In which Portuguese city do midsummer revellers hit each other with garlic flowers or soft plastic hammers?

Porto throws its biggest street party on the night of 23 June, with grilled sardines and bonfire jumping. Many revellers then walk to the coast and wait by the sea for sunrise.

The hot 'dog days' that follow the summer solstice are named after which star, the brightest in the night sky?

Sirius, the Dog Star, returns to the dawn sky in high summer, and ancient astrology blamed it for heat, drought and mad dogs. Egyptians took the same return as a sign the Nile would flood.

Which ancient Greek contest, held every four years, originally began at a full moon soon after the summer solstice?

The Olympic Games opened on the first or second full moon after the solstice, in the heat of a Greek summer. The four-year span that each festival began was known as an olympiad.

Which Greek scholar used the noon Sun at Syene on the summer solstice to estimate Earth's circumference?

Eratosthenes learned that rods at Syene cast no shadow at solstice noon, while rods in Alexandria threw one. The difference in angle let him work out the size of the whole planet.

What is the name for Earth's farthest point from the Sun, reached about two weeks after the June solstice?

Aphelion falls in early July, which shows that distance from the Sun does not make summer. Earth's closest approach comes in January, in the middle of the northern winter.

Which planet lies so far over on its side that each pole gets about 42 years of sunlight around its summer solstice?

Uranus takes 84 Earth years to orbit the Sun, so each pole has about 42 years of light followed by 42 of darkness. Voyager 2 flew past it in 1986.

Which US city's Fremont district holds a Solstice Parade famous for its painted, clothing-optional cyclists?

Seattle's Fremont Arts Council stages the parade on a Saturday close to the solstice. The body-painted riders are its unofficial opening act rather than an organised entry.

Which northern European country calls Midsummer Juhannus and flies its national flag right through the night?

Finland hoists its flag at 6 pm on Midsummer's Eve and keeps it flying until 9 the next evening, an exception to the usual sunset rule. Juhannus is named after John the Baptist.

Which country on the Baltic Sea celebrates Jāņi with oak-leaf crowns, beer, cheese and bonfires that burn all night?

Latvia ranks Jāņi above Christmas: a 2023 survey found it the country's most celebrated festival. Drivers even fix small oak branches to their cars for the holiday.

Which Spanish city burns huge monuments at its Bonfires of Saint John, a June festival inspired by Valencia's Fallas?

Alicante has built and burned its elaborate bonfire monuments since 1928. Before then its people did what much of Europe did on the night of Saint John: they burned old furniture.

In Baltic and Slavic folklore, which plant is said to flower only on the eve of the summer solstice?

The fern never flowers in nature, which is the charm of the tale: its magic bloom is said to bring fortune to whoever finds it. Midsummer revellers go on symbolic hunts for it to this day.

Which name, taken from an old Anglo-Saxon month recorded by Bede, do many Wiccans give the summer solstice festival?

Litha only became the festival's name in 1974, when the Wiccan writer Aidan Kelly borrowed it. Bede's list of months had used the word for roughly June and July.

At which ancient Southwestern site was a 'Sun Dagger' of light found piercing a spiral carving on the summer solstice?

Chaco Canyon's Sun Dagger was first noticed in 1977 by the artist Anna Sofaer, a volunteer recording rock art. Three stone slabs leaning on a cliff channel the light onto the spiral.

On Kupala Night, the Slavic midsummer festival, what do young women traditionally set afloat on rivers and lakes?

Wreaths of blossoms go onto the water, and Kraków's big midsummer event is simply called Wianki, the Polish word for them. Couples also jump over the bonfire holding hands.

Which North Atlantic island celebrates its national day on 21 June, the summer solstice, with flag raising and kayaking?

Greenland introduced the day in 1985 and gained self-government on the same date in 2009. Since 2016 state authorities in Denmark have flown the island's flag to mark it.