Lisa Hendrix

Did you know that the low hanging, large, reddish moon that would be called a Harvest Moon in late September/Early October is called a Strawberry Moon when it happens near the solstice? 

The summer solstice was yesterday, June 20, at 7:59 PM EDT, so I thought I’d do a quick roundup of  ways some folks mark this longest day of the year.

Traditional

Flowers: Gathering nine different types of flowers and placing them under your pillow on the solstice is supposed to make you dream of the person you will marry. Nine is a number sacred to the old Nordic and Saxon gods (which is why there are nine Vikings in my crew of Immortal Warriors.)

Weddings: Druids celebrated the summer solstice as a marriage of heaven and earth, which is why June is the month for weddings

Bonfires.  In Cornwall in the old days, every peak and hall glowed with light on Midsummer Eve as the fires begged the sun not to retreat into winters darkness.

Spirals:  Ancient solar dances would spiral in to the center and back out again, representing the path of the sun.

Herbs: Practioners of herbal magic believe that herbs gathered at the solstice are imbued with extra potency.

Stones: Tracking the sun was immensely important to early people, so they knew when to plant and harvest and when to honor their gods—so important that they would spend years building what amounted to giant stone calendars. Stonehenge is the most famous of these, but Machu Pichu, New Grange, the Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon, and dozens of other stone sites around the world served the same function.

Modern

Parades: Seattle’s Fremont District (The Center of the Universe) holds a fair and a wild parade to celebrate the solstice and the amazing energy of the neighborhood. 

Nativity of St. John the Baptist:  This Christianized version of the solstice marks the birth of this important saint (unlike most feast days, which celebrate the martyrdom of the saint).  Particularly important in northern and eastern Europe and the celtic countries (where the solstice was also key), it is one of the most solemn of Catholic holy days, even celebrated when it falls on a Sunday (also not typical for a saint’s day).

Picnics and Bonfires: In Denmark and other countries, Midsummer is marked by spending much of the day outside, ending with a nice bonfire on the beach.

Stones: In the tradition of the great ancient builders, my husband recently put the item “Stonehenge” on the whiteboard that his team uses to keep track of projects at work.  Yesterday, he assembled his personal mini-Stonehenge kit (carefully aligned, of course) and crossed the item off the list. No one noticed. Sigh.

He intends to do it again in December anyway.

How do you celebrate Midsummer?

First, there is water on Mars. (Link to Wired article with nice image showing ice chunks subliming.)

Second, the Smithsonian now has their photograph collection up on Flickr Commons, with all photos hi-res and tagged as “No known copyright restrictions.” (Link)

Things like this give me hope. 

Back to the research track with the Internet Medieval Sourcebook — Fordham University’s online repository of original medieval era documents in the original languages and in translation, plus links to other repositories. Everything from Church documents, philosophy and spiritual thought, early Islam, government/legal/medical documents, and literary texts in major European languages –including Norse sagas, a couplet-rhymed translation of the Song of Roland, the Robin Hood texts, Canterbury Tales, several translations of Beowulf, etc. There’s nothing quite like reading source material.

Lisa

There’s more to Google Earth than finding a satellite view of your house — which is cool enough — or even seeing the land where your characters walk. You can also find the altitude of any particular spot just by rolling the pointer over it or use the ruler to measure distances from point to point. Optional links (which show as dots on the photo) take you to Read the rest of this entry »

TimeRef.com — a wonderful interactive timeline of the Middle Ages. Approaches the era both chronologically and as “Episodes”, which break down specific incidents. Includes thorough listings of medieval people and places, plus 3-D Virtual Reconstructions of buildings as they may have appeared in the past (you can visit London Bridge, or see Warwick Castle in 1070 and 1260 and make comparisons). Use their Timeline Wizard to generate timelines of events for a given date range, related to selected people or based on various criteria, or select My Project to organize information around a specific subject and then generate a useful reference report and timelines.

Snazzy.

Lisa

In the same vein as yesterday:

Calculation of the Ecclesiastical Calendar — Western, Orthodox, Gregorian, Julian, it’s all here, including information on how the date for Easter was and is calculated.

Medieval Calendar Calculator — Print out nifty one month or full-year calendars for years between 500 and 1582, when the Gregorian calendar came into use in most European countries. You can opt to include feast days, holy days, and saint’s days. I use this one to keep track of my story timeline for IMMORTAL WARRIOR, which takes place roughly between Christmas 1095 and All Hallows, 1096.

Did I mention I can be a bit obsessive, too?

Lisa

Today’s link is to Packrat’s Timeline — an eclectic but concise listing of events from 4,000,000 B.C.E. to the 17th century, with subsets covering the ancient world and the Crusades. This is the project of a genealogist who is trying to keep track of information on his own ancestors, but it works nicely to relate events to each other. If you scroll down the page, you’ll find a true packrat’s collection of links to graphics, information on Celts and Druids, hummers (the birds, not the cars), and other miscellany.

On a related note, Time and Date.com will generate a custom calendar for any year, plus offers things like a countdown and a way to find out on what day you’re 20,000 days old.

I do enjoy people with obsessions.

Lisa

I neglected to put up a link yesterday, so today you get two.

First up, Merriam-Webster’s Visual Dictionary On-Line. Arranged thematically, this is the interactive version of the familiar reference book. Great for when you can see something in your mind but can’t come up with the word for it, and just plain fun to explore

Second, because it’s so amazing, Read the rest of this entry »

Not the real one, but Camelot International — Britain’s Heritage and History. An excellent “beginner’s” site for British history from Roman times to present. Has an “Interactive Medieval Village”:http://www.camelotintl.com/village/street.html where you can click on the people on the street and learn about their lives (great for kids with homework to do!). Also offers info on castles and historic homes, famous Brits, ‘British’ battles, the rulers of Britain, etc. And, of course, the legend of Camelot.

Enjoy! I’m off to write.

Lisa

I’m on the last downhill slope for Immortal Warrior, so to offer you something new each day but still stay focused, I’m going to keep things simple and just post my favorite research sites. Whether you’re a reader or a writer, I promise you can find something interesting in each and every site. I’ll try to start out with more general sites before I move to the arcane. Today’s site:

Regia Anglorum — Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Norman and British Living History. Basically, the Brits’ version of the Society for Creative Anachronism, enhanced by the fact that they have access to source materials. A tremendous research site, and full of fun information for those who are just curious.

Happy December,

Lisa