Litha
Today at 1:06PM [CDT] is the Summer Solstice, technically considered the “first day of Summer”, but the mid Summer by much of Europe.
Many Wicca celebrate the day as Litha, while computer programmers honor their predecessors, the druids, who build the first solid-state computing devices, the megaliths, like Stonehenge.
The Slavs celebrate St. John’s Night, Иван Купала [Ivan Kupala], the battle between the White god [Белобог – Belobog] and the Black god [Чёрнобог – Chyornobog] for control of the Sun. The Black god always wins and the night begins to expand.
The sound track to the battle is Иванова Ночь на Лысой Горе [Night on Bald Mountain ] by Модест Петрович Мусоргский [Modest Petrovich Musorgsky], which everyone should play very loudly.
Via Andante from some time ago, I ran across Archaeoastronomy which tracks all of the important solar events.
4 comments
“If it ain’t loud, it ain’t music”
You haven’t lived until you’ve heard Night on Bald Mountain played by handbells. It was done quite well with amazing expertise, but still….weird.
If you ever get into a real biography of Modest Musorgski, you would understand why I think he would have loved it. Of course, almost anything is improved with “more cowbell.”
What?! You mean to tell me Disney didn’t write that work? 🙂 Some things just don’t work when played quietly.
The actual “first day of Summer” here occurred a lot closer to the Vernal Equinox. By today, we’re broiled well-done before noon.
There were a number of fellow composers who wouldn’t let Modest near their pianos because of his belief in “fortissimo”.