terça-feira, 17 de maio de 2016

Mid summer's Day

The festival is primarily a Celtic fire festival, representing the middle of summer, and the shortening of the days on their gradual march to winter. Midsummer is traditionally celebrated on either the 23rd or 24th of June, although the longest day actually falls on the 21st of June. The importance of the day to our ancestors can be traced back many thousands of years, and many stone circles and other ancient monuments are aligned to the sunrise on Midsummer's Day. Probably the most famous alignment is that at Stonehenge, where the sun rises over the heel stone, framed by the giant trilithons on Midsummer morning. 
In antiquity midsummer fires were lit in high places all over the countryside, and in some areas of Scotland Midsummer fires were still being lit well into the 18th century.  
After Christianity became adopted in Britain, the festival became known as St John's day and was still celebrated as an important day in the church calendar; the birthday of St John the Baptist. 
The festival is still important to pagans today, including the modern day druids who (barring any trouble) celebrate the solstice at Stonehenge in Wiltshire. For them the light of the sun on Midsummer's Day signifies the sacred Awen.
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Students: Catarina Rodrigues, Cheila Alvarez, Mariana Pereira 



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