Summer Solstice 2009 was on the 22nd of December on the Southern Wheel of the Year. It is also known as Midsummer and Litha.
The Southern Wheel applies to the Southern Hemisphere, including Australia. It is based on the European Wheel of the Year. (See Wheel links below or in the side-bar.)
I went away before Christmas and packed some incense, a yellow candle for the light half, from Winter Solstice to Summer Solstice, and a black candle was for the dark half, from Summer Solstice to Winter Solstice.
On the 22nd I went and looked at the Christmas Bushes in the gardens in the area. They are a very noticeable flower in the gardens of the NSW Central Coast and Sydney in December.
They are a native Australian bush or small tree. Their proper names are Ceratopetalum gummiferum and C. apetalum and their range in the wild is NSW coasts and the Blue Mountains just outside Sydney.
The tiny orange-red flowers that cover them in December are not actually the flowers but fruiting calyces. The true flowers are barely noticeable. They are tiny and white and appear in November.
For more than a century, sprays of Christmas Bush have been cut and brought inside for Christmas decoration. As they are the height of their beauty at Summer Solstice, they make an excellent Summer Solstice emblem.
After dark on the 22nd I took the candles and incense outside and put them on a small table.
I lit the incense then the yellow candle and said ‘The light half is finished. The solstice has come.’ I lit the black candle from the yellow one and extinguished the yellow candle and said ‘The solstice has come. The dark half has begun.’
That was it. It was very simple and brief and, as time goes on, I am finding simple and brief is what I prefer in my private marking of the festivals.
When I got home I put the yellow candle away to light at Winter Solstice and the black candle to burn down at the same time.
The next festival on the Southern Wheel is Lughnasadh which falls around the beginning of February.
Southern Wheel of the Year
Wuruma Wheel of the Year (NSW Central Coast natural seasons)
