The summit of the summer solstice 2025 arrives, with the celebrations – here is what to know

The main dishes to remember on the summer solstice

• The summer solstice will occur on June 20, 2025 in the northern hemisphere. This marks the first day of summer and is the longest day of the year.

• For a while, before it turns around and heads towards the south, the sun will seem briefly motion. This is where the word “solstice” – in Latin, comes from ground means “sun” and stop means “stay motionless”.

• The summer solstice meant a lot for our old ancestors, who closely followed the movements of the sun.

For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the days develop longer and life becomes brighter. Every day, the sun rises a little higher in the sky, adding a few minutes in the morning and in the evening. This happy trend will reach a summit on June 20, 2025, when the sun will reach its northern point in the sky, during the summer solstice, before it starts to withdraw into fall and winter.

This is what will happen from our point of view, anyway. If you could zoom in and look further in the solar system, you would see a different version of the events.

“All of this is linked to the fact that the earth goes around the sun,” said Jeti Horner, astronomer from Australia University in southern Queensland.

What is the summer solstice?

The earth, like a tower leaning on the size of a Pisa planet, is not straight. Its axis (the line operating between the north and south poles) is tilted by around 23.5 degrees. Thus, once in each solar orbit, this inclination points straight to the sun, bringing maximum light to the northern hemisphere – and almost 90% of the world’s population.

This marks the summer solstice, otherwise known as the first day of the summer and the longest day of the year.

When and where the summer solstice occurs

Technically, the solstice is not a whole day, but rather the precise moment when the axial inclination points the most directly to the sun. It occurs at the same time for the whole planet, which means that the exact timing depends on your time zone.

For the east coast of the United States, it will take place at 10:42 p.m. on June 20, 2025. In the southern hemisphere, where Horner lives, he notes that “this is entirely the opposite path.”

While the sun is getting closer to the North Pole, it sinks further from the South Pole. This part of the planet points directly far sun.

While North America, Europe and Asia discover the summer solstice, Australia, South Africa and most of South America will simultaneously discover the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.

Find out more: The oldest solar calendar in the world could have been discovered in Türkiye

Why is the name of the summer solstice

From each point of view, the sun has moved in a northern direction for almost six months. At noon on the solstice, it will finally reach a northern limit: 23.5 degrees north of the equator, a latitude known as the tropic of cancer.

For a while, before it turns around and heads towards the south, the sun will seem briefly motion. It is Hence the word “solstice” comes from – In Latin, ground means “sun” and stop means “stay motionless”.

Between the summer and winter solstices are the vernal and autumn equinoxes, which mark the beginning of spring and autumn. These days, the sun rises directly above the equator, which is the environment between the tropic of cancer and its southern counterpart, the Tropic of Capricorn.

Throughout the planet, the nights and the days are almost equal, about 12 hours each.

Solstice celebrations throughout human history

Celestial events had enormous importance throughout human history, in a way that most of the 21st century minds can hardly understand.

“Our link with astronomy […] is in fact far from being as strong as the traditional land owners in a given country, “explains Horner.” People were much more in tune with the duration of the day and the seasons. “”

Solstices were major turning point for our observer ancestors. They closely followed the movement of the sun and built many old monuments – like Stone stone and some Meso-American pyramids – Alignment with its position at the extremes North and South.

For some cultures, the winter solstice symbolized the triumph of the sun on darkness, announcing a period of renewal and the arrival of another agricultural season. Confirmation of the longer days to come was often an opportunity for feasts, according to Horner.

“The time for difficulties and the life of stored meats and everything you have prepared at the time of harvest was going to end,” he said. “People had good reasons to celebrate this kind of thing.”

The summer solstice, on the other hand, gave birth to “Midsummer” festivals halfway throughout the growth season. These were particularly common in Great Britain, Norway, Sweden and other parts of northern Europe. Many survived the modern era, with Dance of Mayypole,, Ceremonial joy fires and other festivities.

Find out more: Stonehenge can be an old solar calendar

Get the most out of the solstice today

There are many sites across North America which were astronomically important for indigenous peoples, from the snake mound in Ohio to Chaco Canyon to New Mexico and Arizona Petrified forest national park. If you sometimes live near these others or others, they can organize solstice events.

Otherwise, you can simply absorb certain knowledge with these sweet summer rays. Even if you remember most of what you learned about the school solstice, “there is always another secret”, as Horner said – a more deep layer of complexity to appreciate.

On the one hand, it is a false common idea that the earth becomes warmer in summer because we get closer to the sun. But in fact, the difference between the perihelion and the aperitif (the points of the orbit of the earth where it is closest and the most distant from the sun, respectively) is too small to change many climatic conditions – in fact, We are closest to the sun in January. Instead, the large temperature oscillations mainly come from the direction of the inclination of the earth.

Here is another surprise: although the solstices and the equinoxes divide the year into four almost equal pieces, these seasons are not precisely the same length; If you add every day between each Equinox and Solstice, you will find that “three months” is only a gross estimate. For the northern hemisphere, 89 days ago in winter, 93 in the spring, 94 in summer and 90 in the fall.

It is because of gravity. When the earth is getting closer to the sun in winter, the stronger gravitational traction sweeps it more quickly through its orbit. When it moves away in summer, the gravity of the sun is weakening and this extent of the orbit takes longer. So, if last winter was dark, do not forget that summer is about to start repaying you – 5 days of interest.

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com Use studies evaluated by high -quality peers and sources for our articles, and our publishers examine scientific precision and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

Cody Cottier is a writer contributing to Discover who likes to explore great questions about the universe and our native planet, the nature of consciousness, the ethical implications of science and more. He holds a baccalaureate in journalism and media production of the Washington State University.