Tea Blog

The time is near for Summer Solstice and a special glass of chilled tea. Something full of sunshine would fit the bill nicely.

Just as the Winter Solstice marks when the Northern hemisphere of our planet has the fewest hours of daylight and longest night, Summer Solstice marks its longest day and shortest night (reverse that for the Southern hemisphere). This year, the solstice is June 21st. It’s also the first day of Summer, as in vacations, picnics, sudden thunderstorms, hurricane season, watching the corn get as high as an elephant’s eye, etc.

In the U.S., we usually don’t make too big a deal of these dates. In the UK, though, thousands gather at Stonehenge, showing up before sunrise at that strange ring of stones. They sing and dance and drink lots of hot tea. Then, the sun comes up and it’s the start of a long day of sunshine. They all know, though, even as they dance, that each successive day will get shorter until the Winter Solstice. They know, therefore, that they have to make the most of that sunshine.

Long ago, the solstices were celebrated in different ways in cultures around the world:

• In ancient China, the Summer solstice was a celebration of the earth, the feminine, and the yin forces (versus the winter solstice which is a celebration of the heavens, masculinity and yang forces).
• The ancient Gauls held a Midsummer celebration called the Feast of Epona, (she was a goddess personifying sovereignty, agriculture, and fertility).
• The ancient Swedes set up and decorated Midsummer trees in each town and danced around them.
• American Indian tribes had different celebrations depending on the tribe. The Natchez tribe celebrated the first fruits. Hopi men danced to the rain and fertility. A tribe in what is now Vermont built a stone structure similar to Stonehenge; it’s a 20-acre natural amphitheatre with vertical rocks and markers around the rim for both the Summer and Winter Solstices.

Since this is the Summer Solstice for those of us in the Northern hemisphere, some cool treats will be welcome. Start with chilled (iced) tea and you can’t go wrong. Good feast starters are cucumber sandwiches with cool, smooth cream cheese, plus bright red tomato slices and other freshly washed vegetables bursting with all the nutrients they’ve built up from the soil, rain, and sun. No Summer feast would be complete without the barbecue, whether the kind with the tomato-based sauce or the vinegar kind.

Whether you’re planning to hang out at Stonehenge or the natural amphitheatre in Vermont or just at your neighborhood park, take time to soak in the sunshine, suck up some chilled tea through a straw, gnash on some yummy treats, and make the most of every minute of sunlight. They’ll be gone sooner than you think. Enjoy!

You can find more interesting articles at Tea Time with A.C. Cargill!