Wheel of the Year

Litha

Midsummer, the longest day, when the sun is at the height of its power.

When: the summer solstice, around 21 June in the north and 21 December in the south.

What it is

At Litha (say "LITH-a") the day is at its longest and the sun stands highest. Everything is in full growth. It is the festival of fullness and strength, and it carries a turning point within it: from the next day on the light slowly declines, while the warmth still increases for weeks.

Witches celebrate what has grown since spring, in the garden and in themselves, and take a little of the light with them for the darker half.

Where it comes from

People have watched this day for a very long time. Stonehenge is built so that the midsummer sun rises in line with its entrance, and thousands gather there each year to see it.

In Christian Europe the feast of Saint John the Baptist, on 24 June, took over midsummer. On its eve fires burned on the hills from Ireland to Russia, as writers have reported since the Middle Ages, and people gathered herbs that were thought to be strongest on this night: St John's wort, mugwort, yarrow. In Sweden, Midsummer with its pole wreathed in leaves and its crowns of flowers is the greatest festival of the year after Christmas.

The name Litha comes from Bede, the English monk who wrote around 725 that June and July had once been called Liða. It was proposed as the name of the sabbat in the 1970s. The Litha of modern witches is therefore young, built from the old midsummer customs. It is one of the eight sabbats of the Wheel of the Year.

Ways to celebrate

• Greet the sun: watch the early sunrise or the late sunset and stay until it is over.
• Be outdoors: eat outside, walk barefoot on grass, stay out until the light goes.
• Herbs: look for the midsummer herbs on a walk and learn to recognise them.
• What has grown: name three things that have come to something since Ostara.
• Keep some light: write down one bright moment of this day, to read in December.

Good to know

Never look into the sun, at any time of day. Protect your skin and your head, and drink enough.

In a dry summer every flame outdoors is a danger. Do without a fire, keep to the rules where you live, and use a candle in a jar on a stone floor if you want a flame at all.

Gather only herbs you can name with certainty and that you may pick, and take little. St John's wort can weaken many medicines if it is swallowed, among them the contraceptive pill; as a flower in a vase it does no harm.

After walks in grass and woods, check yourself for ticks.