Wednesday, June 21, is the summer solstice, the longest day of the year (actually, the most daylight) and the official beginning of summer. It’s counterpart, the winter solstice, has the fewest hours of daylight (the shortest day), which is December 21 this year.

How will you celebrate the summer solstice? Approximately 23,000 people congregated last year at Stonehenge, England, a prehistoric stone monument, to celebrate the solstice as people have been doing since the 20th century. WikiHow offers a list of 11 suggestions and the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington is holding a free walk in the Museum’s outdoor labyrinth from 6-7 pm on the 21st. Closer to home, Falvey’s blog authors have offered reading lists: “Say Hello to Summer: What to Read on the Longest Day” (Regina Duffy, 2014) and “Some ‘Light’ Summer Reading – Not. A Baker’s Dozen Plus of Longest Novels” (Alice Bampton, 2016). Falvey has two novels relating to the summer solstice, The Great Night by Chris Adrian and The Night of the Summer Solstice: And Other Stories of the Russian War, a collection of short stories by various authors. However you choose to spend the day, enjoy the extra daylight and keep in mind that from this point forward days will grow increasingly shorter until the arrival of the winter solstice.

Image from pixabay.com.

We are committed to accuracy and will make appropriate corrections. We apologize for any errors and always welcome input about news coverage that warrants correction. Messages can be e-mailed to alice.bampton@villanova.edu or call (610)519-6997.