Summer is Officially Here!

It’s hard to believe we’re already here – we’ve passed the halfway point of the year. Every day that passes is one less in 2025. On the other hand, it’s summertime! Tomorrow, June 20, at 10:42 p.m. EDT, the summer solstice arrives.

While we may not see a lot of temperature changes here on the Gulf Coast of Florida, for the next few months we’ll see more of the sun than less. It’s actually a misnomer to call the entire season the summer solstice. Solstice literally translates from the Latin, sol = sun, and sistere = stands still. So the solstice itself is that moment where the sun appears to stop moving in the sky, although that’s hard to see from our perspective.

The best place to witness the phenomenon if you’re into astrotourism, is the Arctic Circle, where the Sun seems to hug the horizon for an entire 24 hours. It’s also a great place to see the Northern Lights and maybe catch a glimpse of jolly old St. Nick.

SUMMER OR MIDSUMMER?

While our modern calendar and almanac mark the summer solstice as the first day of summer, for many ancient cultures it’s actually considered midsummer. They marked May 1st as the beginning of summer and held festivals during the third week in June to celebrate the midpoint. This is especially true of the Germanic cultures that evolved into most of Europe: England, France, Germany and parts of Eastern Europe.

Each cultural offshoot has its own approach to midsummer. In Ancient Rome, midsummer falls amongst a week of celebrations for Apollo, who supposedly pulled the sun across the sky, and Vesta, a fertility goddess of hearth, home and family. In Sweden to this day, midsummer is almost as popular as Christmas, with government offices, businesses and shops closing down.

As Christianity spread across Rome and Europe, it brought its holidays and feast days. Midsummer was the perfect time to honor the birth of John the Baptist, who the Bible tells us was born six months before Jesus. Saint John's Eve, on June 23, is one of the few feast days the early church set to commemorate a birth rather than a martyr’s death.

The Astronomical Monuments of Summer

Scientifically speaking, the summer solstice occurs because the earth rotates at an angle to the sun. On June 20, it hits the maximum spot – 23.44-degrees measured from the sun to the equator.  2000+ years ago, we didn’t have the understanding of math and physics we do today. But somehow, ancient peoples not only knew to mark the day, they built monuments to it in ways we still don’t fully understand.

For the Egyptians, the summer solstice was when the Nile River flooded every year, bringing fertility and prosperity to both crops and families. People would flock to Egypt to find food and water in the desert. For them, it wasn’t midsummer - it was the beginning of the new year. The pyramids are best known for tracking the solar equinoxes, but on the summer solstice, the sun sets directly between the pyramids of Khufu and Khafre.

In South and Central America, the natives built different pyramids - Machu Picchu and Chichen Itza that are more ziggurat-styled. On the sunrise of the summer solstice, the sun aligns perfectly with the Incan Temple of the Sun and the Sun Gate in Peru, illuminating the ceremonial stone within. In Mexico, on the north staircase of the Kukulcán Pyramid in Chichen Itza, as the sun sets on solstice day, giant inverted triangles appear, seemingly in the form of the legendary feathered serpent that gives the site its name.

Of course, probably the most well-known monument to the movement of the sun, at least for us here in the U.S., is Stonehenge. The series of rock towers and tables, built some 5000 years ago, capture centuries of celestial history. Thousands gather at the neolithic site every year to watch the sun rise behind the Heel Stone as its first rays shine into the heart of the monument. June 20^th/21st is one of the few times the UK government allows “Open Access,” the closest you can approach the Chorea Gigantum all year.

Fun in the Sun

For most of us the summer solstice is just another day, but one that marks the beginning of a time to hang out with friends, hit the beach, or BBQ in our backyards. Unfortunately, it’s also as we begin the rainy hurricane season. While we know we have little to fear from the daily rains that quickly dry, this time also brings a lot of mosquitoes.

Mosquitoes need to lay their eggs in wet conditions, then let them dry - only to hatch when they get wet again. When that cycle happens almost every day, that’s a lot of buzzing around our heads and open skin. Of course, you can take appropriate precautions – wearing long sleeves and pants, avoiding alcohol and sugary sodas, and staying indoors during peak times. Don’t forget to minimize standing water on your property and keep your gutters clear.

You can also ask for help. Imagine turning biting mosquitoes into vegans? It’s possible with our exclusive No Bite Zones Mosquito Protection Program. The MPP is easy to use and perfect for most backyards. Just hang the MPaq and you can enjoy a peaceful evening of picnic and barbeque, unmolested by biting bugs. For more details on this or any of our green pest control solutions, just give us a call!