How to Celebrate Summer Solstice Around the World
Summer Solstice: A Time of Light and Abundance
Around the world, the longest day of the year holds deep significance. The summer solstice—a celestial turning point when the sun appears to pause at its peak—has been observed by civilizations for thousands of years. While the details vary across cultures, the essence remains the same: light, abundance, and reverence for the natural world. From flower-crowned dances in Scandinavia to sunrise rituals in South America, here’s how summer solstice rituals are honored around the globe.
Sweden: Midsummer Feasts and Flower Crowns
In Sweden, Midsummer is second only to Christmas in cultural importance. As the sun lingers late into the evening, families gather in the countryside for traditional celebrations that mix pagan roots with joyful seasonal ritual. Flower crowns are woven by hand, maypoles are raised, and tables are set with pickled herring, new potatoes, sour cream, and aquavit. It’s a festival of the senses—bright blooms, bonfires, music, and midnight swims beneath skies that barely darken.
Italy: Bonfires and Saint’s Day in Tuscany
In some parts of Italy, the solstice coincides with Festa di San Giovanni (Feast of Saint John), celebrated on June 24th. In Florence and other Tuscan towns, it’s marked with bonfires, fireworks, and communal meals that bring neighborhoods together. Ancient solstice traditions blend with Catholic customs, creating a hybrid holiday of fire and feast. Fresh herbs are gathered at night—believed to carry heightened potency on the eve of the solstice—while open-air markets overflow with summer produce like zucchini blossoms and cherries.
Chile: Mapuche New Year (We Tripantu)
For the Indigenous Mapuche people of southern Chile, the solstice marks We Tripantu—their new year and the beginning of the annual agricultural cycle. It is a time to give thanks to nature and renew ancestral ties. The celebration includes rituals like the purification of homes and bodies, storytelling, communal meals, and traditional music and dance. These sacred ceremonies reinforce a worldview centered on balance between humans and the earth—something echoed in many solstice traditions around the world.
Peru: Inti Raymi and Incan Sun Worship
In the Andes, the June solstice marks the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere—but it’s no less spiritually significant. The Inca once celebrated Inti Raymi, a sun festival in honor of Inti, the sun god. Today, Cusco continues to honor this ancient tradition with music, parades, and reenactments of Incan ceremonies. Travelers in Peru during the solstice can experience modern tributes that echo ancient rites—floral offerings, processions in full costume, and the shared warmth of community at high altitude.
Japan: Sōlar Traditions and Seasonal Reverence
In Japan, summer solstice isn’t marked with mass celebration, but its arrival aligns with broader cultural values around seasonality and balance. Shinto traditions pay tribute to nature’s rhythms, and June is often a time of rice planting and purification rituals. Summer foods—like cold soba, pickled plums, and early-harvested green tea—reflect the belief in eating in harmony with the land’s cycles. In Kyoto’s shrines and mountain temples, small offerings and quiet observances usher in the sun’s peak with graceful simplicity.
Latvia and Lithuania: Jāņi & Joninės
In Latvia and Lithuania, the summer solstice is one of the most important and ancient festivals—known as Jāņi in Latvia and Joninės in Lithuania. These are celebrations of fertility, light, and nature, deeply rooted in pre-Christian folklore. People wear wreaths of wildflowers and oak leaves, sing traditional songs, leap over bonfires, and stay awake through the “shortest night” to await the rising sun. In rural areas, homemade cheese with caraway seeds and local beer are essential to the festivities, adding a culinary lens to the revelry.
Alaska: Indigenous & Contemporary Solstice Festivals
In Alaska, where the midnight sun can stretch for days above the Arctic Circle, solstice celebrations take on a powerful, light-filled dimension. Indigenous communities have long marked the turning of the seasons with ceremonies tied to subsistence cycles, while modern events include Solstice Festivals in Fairbanks or Anchorage, where music, food, and traditional dancing intersect with appreciation for the land’s extremes.
United Kingdom: Stonehenge Sunrise
Each year, thousands gather at Stonehenge to watch the midsummer sun rise directly above the Heel Stone—an astronomical alignment that has puzzled and inspired for centuries. The prehistoric monument in Wiltshire becomes a gathering place for Druids, spiritual seekers, and the solstice-curious alike. Surrounded by mystery and mist, the experience of dawn breaking across the stones is both ancient and timeless.
Ukraine: Ivana Kupala Night
Held close to the summer solstice, Ivana Kupala Night is a Slavic festival that mixes pagan and Christian elements. Celebrated with bonfires, water rituals, and flower wreaths floated down rivers, it’s a midsummer holiday associated with love, fertility, and purification. The symbolism of fire and water plays heavily in the rituals, and traditional songs, dances, and folk costumes all bring the story of summer’s arrival vividly to life.
Whether through ancient ceremony or modern gathering, the solstice continues to remind us of our place in the rhythm of nature. It is a moment of pause, of abundance, and of connection—to light, to land, and to one another. At Modern Adventure, we honor these traditions not just on the solstice, but throughout the year—through journeys rooted in culture, cuisine, and a reverence for place. Discover our trips to these destinations and more.
Want to learn more about seasonal rituals around the world? Check out our posts about celebrating the spring equinox or wellness rituals around the world.
