Does the first day of summer start on June 21rst this year?
# in the Northern Hemisphere summers solstice begins on June 21, 2009 at 1:45 A.M. EDT # in the UK on June 20, 2009 at 20:45 UT # Ancient Pagans celebrated Midsummer with bonfires, when couples would leap through the flames, believing their crops would grow as high as the couples were able to jump. # Midsummer was thought to be a time of magic, when evil spirits were said to appear. To thwart them, Pagans often wore protective garlands of herbs and flowers. One of the most powerful of them was a plant called ‘chase-devil’, which is known today as St. John’s Wort and still used by modern herbalists as a mood stabilizer. Sources: http://www.chiff.com/a/summer-solstice.
