Terran Holidays - The Summer Solstice (Patreon)

Summer is something that everyone experiences worldwide, the days getting longer and the temperatures warmer. It’s only natural that the start of summer is something people want to celebrate worldwide. The celebrations themselves vary, depending on date, location, and even religion.

The orc city of V’rok’sh Tah’lj has long fostered a very sex positive community, and as such, have a number of annual fesitval celebrating relationships and fertility, and the summer solstice is no exception. Celebrations actually begin on the day before the solstice, the 30th of Geminus. Groups of friends and family will spend the day hunting in the forest together, and the game they bring back is prepared for a feast the next day. After finishing their meals, adults will leave their homes to revel in the streets together, partying until the early hours of the morning.

In the past, the country of Albion would celebrate the start of summer with a night of singing, dancing, and drinking. Bonfires would often be set on hills and in fields where citienes would gather and share in the revelry, and there are even ancient stone monuments that align with the sun’s position. However, as the Holy Church of Albion has expanded its influence across the country, they sought to put a stop to what they viewed as the more debaucherous aspects of the holiday. It is not a holy night of worship and devotion, in which people remain awake and fast for the evening.

In Northern Alkebulan, particularly around the large arid deserts of Kemet, the beginning of summer is celebrated as the start of the new year. This day marks when the rivers begin to rise, flooding the plains and feeding their crops. As it is also the longest day of the year, much of the ceremony and worship of the day is devoted to Ra, the patron god of the sun and the head of the Kemtian pantheon.

The country of Huaxia is one that uses an alternate calendar, meaning holidays like the solstices and equinoxes fall on different days than the rest of the year. On the Huaxian calendar, the day celebrated as the summer solstice falls on the middle of the fifth month, and is known as the Holy Day of the Vermillion Bird. In Huaxian culture, the number five is associated with bad luck, and the day was originally devoted to warding off and protecting against it. As time has gone on, the celebrations have expanded to include more fanciful and fun things, such as creating paper effigies of insects and other creatures that represent bad luck or misfortune, making and eating food numbered in fives, and even boat races.

Due to the axis of Terra being tilted, much like Earth’s, the seasons of the Northern and Southern hemispheres are flipped. That means while people in the north are celebrating the start of summer, those in the south are actually celebrating the start of winter. On the continent of Abyala, the Empire of Tawantinsuyu hosts the sun festival, a week-long ceremony of dancing, processions, and animal sacrifice. As the winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, this festival marks the day that the sun returns, the hours of light during the day beginning to lengthen, with many people staying up late into the night to pray for a good harvest come the new year.