An African New Year

Tomorrow, June 21st marks this year's summer soltice. It is a celebration of the longest day of the year and the beginning of the summer.

The summer solstice means we are 4 minutes short of 15 hours of daylight. What are you going to do with those extra hours of daylight? Lets hope tommorrow is a lovely sunny day so we can use those extra hours to chill out and relax and be happy.

In Kemet (Ancient Egypt), summer soltice was the most important day of the year. The sun would be at its most powerful and the nile river would begin to rise. The people of Kemet held special ceremonies to honour the Goddesss Aset, who was said to be mourning for her dead husband Asar and that her tears caused the Nile to overflow. An Accurate prediction of the floods was such an important event for the people of Kemet, that the appearance of the star Sirius, which occurs around the time of the summer soltice, was seen as the beginning of the Egyptian New Year.

It is said that the summer soltice is a time to be happy. It is a time to get rid of the things you no longer want or causes chaos in your life. Tomorrow, celebrate being happy.