Today is the longest day of the year: a celestial event celebrated through the ages. Take a few moments if you can, and take a nice sunset walk with someone important to you — at about 9pm.
Today is the longest day of the year: a celestial event celebrated through the ages. Take a few moments if you can, and take a nice sunset walk with someone important to you — at about 9pm.
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Do all atheists celebrate PAGAN holidays? I am not only a non-monotheist, but also a non-polytheist so no PAGAN holidays, including sun worshiping.
Hello, Im new! been reading the blog for a long time dhow.
Nothing wrong with appreciating nature’s beauty. Taking a walk on a longest day of the year is far from sun worshiping
Peter, we don’t worship anything. Some of us do, however, enjoy nature and all that it brings to life. We all know that the sun is not the physical manifestation of Apollo. So if you want to, relax and go outside and enjoy the feeling of the sunshine on your face, or the rain, or whatever gives you joy.
Peter— In nature,the Summer Solstice is the longest day in the year–that’s it, nothing pagan about it. The northern half of the earth is tilted towards the sun and the northern hemisphere is getting more direct sunlight, which apparently heats the Earth more efficiently than the southern hemisphere. So acknowledging the solstice and equinox (if you choose to), has nothing to do with pagan or polythesits anything! Those are nature based religions that humans created but it has no bearing on nature and the solar system (just like monotheism has no bearing.) The solstice happens whether you notice it or not.
So just because others may acknowledge or even celebrate doesn’t mean you have to. Nobody cares whether you even know what the word solstice means, much less anything else. Also, understanding and appreciating how our universe works, including our sun and all that it does for our little blue planet, hardly qualifies as “worshiping”.
Oh! and Have a FABULOUS LONG SUNNY DAY everyone!
It’s crazy, but at this time of year I’m curling into bed at 10:30 and it’s still light out! It’s kinda weird to get used to, but pretty darn cool. Reminds me of my early childhood.
I’m all for hanging out the deck with a great home brew to celebrate the Solstice.
You have to admit though, the only gods that it even makes sense to worship are the sun god and the water god since both are life-giving. I wonder what life would be like if those were/are the only gods anyone ever worshipped.
Our local news channel even carried a story about the solstice and showed ppl at Stonehenge celebrating it. I was impressed that here in NC they would mention it.
I’m with Peter on this one. I think it’s weird to celebrate solstices and equinoxes as if they were some kind of atheist holidays.
I’ve got nothing against enjoying a beautiful summer day, but you can do that on June 20 and 22 too.
Why do so many atheists here make a big to do about these celestial events, and sort of adopt them as atheist holidays? Why not something like the birthday of Thomas Paine, or Robert Ingersoll, for instance?
Celebrating thinkers can backfire. Darwin Day seems to make fundies think/say “You see – they worship science”
I think that we as humans need some sort of special days or traditions to look forward to and the summer and winter solsices are a convenient and atheistic way to do this. I use it as a day to enjoy extra hours of sunshine and to reflect on the natural world and my place in it.
I like the idea of solstices and equinoxes as a reminder of why certain holidays were celebrated. Also, as a natural explanation for early human behavior. I think most atheists are sympathetic to natural explanations.
Also, they are a good reminder of our temporality as secular reminders of time marching forth. Personally, I like pegging the new year at the winter solstice (at least for Festivus purposes)
I do agree that atheists celebrating Pagan holidays, while not necessarily a contradiction, is still a little strange.
Bottom line is its nice knowing that today will be a long beautiful day in our hemisphere.
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I hope you all had a delightful summer solstice.
When I worked at the World Bank, I learned about the holidays employed by nations around the world. My personal favorite was the nation that celebrated the full Moon. Guaranteed 13 holidays evenly spaced out throughout the year.
Getting high and dancing naked under a full moon all night long and getting the next day off to recuperate is my idea of a holiday celebration. And like others recognizing the four solstice holidays, I don’t know if there is any worshiping of a Moon God, and don’t really care.
My 3 year old realized at 8:30 the sun was still up so he asked Daddy to go play catch out front so we did. Thanks sun/son for the cherished time.
We are products of our environment. I like wishing my friends and family “Happy Summer, Spring” etc because it provides them with an awareness of their environment. Many are unaware and say, “Really? It’s the first day of Summer? Cool.”
I think that’s all good.