Litha
Today at 3:59PM [CDT] was 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.
6 comments
it’s all downhill from here. the days get shorter, hotter, and more humid, and hurricanes more likely.
Yep, it’s prime time and the La Niña is fading away in the Pacific.
“which everyone should play very loudly”
Ahh, yes – I think that comes from the Bible or something.
“If it ain’t loud, it ain’t music”
I always add The 1812 Overture to the list.
Poor Modest was drunk most of his life, so all of his stuff required a lot of amplitude, so he could hear it. Actually it should be scored for a convenient thunderstorm if available.
In some ways he was the first “heavy metal” composer.
As for the 1812, Pyotr did score cannon and church bells.
Excellent pieces for fireworks displays.
Musorgsky must have had a premonition that one day his music would accompany a Disney animation. That thought would drive anyone to drink.
I think Disney was rather faithful to what Musorgsky saw most of his life, as if Walt peeked into Modest’s delusions.