(Source: <http://www.wicca.com/celtic/akasha/litha.htm>)

In a field, a great bonfire blazes. Amid the heat, the crackling and the popping - tiny sparks rise into the night like magical fireflies. All around you people are singing "We are alive as the earth is alive. We have the power to fight for our freedom. If we have courage, we can be healers - like the sun, we shall rise!" It is Litha - the Summer Solstice.

Litha can be seen in a few different traditions/mythologies. In the Oak King/Holly King tradition, the Sun King has two separate personalities, so much so that they become different people, the Oak King and the Holly King, each ruling one half of the year. The Oak King was born at Yule to the Great Mother, and in his light and splendor begins to turn the Great Wheel and start the lengthening of the days. Litha is a time sacred to the Sun King, for this is when He is at His strongest. He has reached the peak of His power, and His rays are such that none dare look at Him for fear of being blinded by His light.

But, as everything in nature comes to its peak and then declines, so too must the God in His aspect of the Sun. But with decline comes transformation, and so it is with the God, who takes on many aspects and wears many crowns. The beginning of the sun's decline is symbolized by the birth of the Holly King, the Spirit of Winter. Just as the Oak King was reborn at Yule during the height of the Winter King's reign, the Holly King is reborn at Litha during the height of the Summer King's reign.

Like Samhain, Litha is a day when the boundaries between the worlds are thin, when mortals have strange experiences, and when faeries troop across the land. Litha is a "day outside of time," and the strange experiences one might have are likely to be comic, harmless, or even beneficial. Litha has an "upside down" quality about it - things are often reversed or mixed-up.

This is the longest day of the year, and one where the veils are once more thin between the realms of the Sidhe (the Faerie realm) and the world of mortals. It is a time for merriment and the making of wishes. The tradition of the wicker man <http://members.aol.com/broomcoven/wickerman.html> is one method of celebrating Litha and making wishes.

The gathering of flowers, especially St. John's wort, either to hang in your home as protection amulets or to tie onto the wicker man <http://members.aol.com/broomcoven/wickerman.html> as a symbol of a wish that you want carried into the next world is a long standing tradition.

The Christian church began calling this date "St. John the Baptist Day" after realizing how widespread and ingrained it was. St. John, the cousin of Jesus of Nazereth, was considered one of the most important saints, leading you to see the importance that the Christian church put in "claiming" this holiday.

In nearly every culture, the Summer Solstice has been recognized, revered and even feared. The Sun is at its height, but at the same moment begins to decline. Only hope, ritual and belief would ensure its return at the Winter Solstice. To early peoples, this must have seemed an amazing and awe-inspiring event. To us modern Witches, it still is.

Litha is about joy. It is about being completely alive, as the earth is at its zenith. Everywhere you look, it's green. Weave flowers into your hair - dance and frolic, take a big, deep cleansing breath of summer air. Bake fresh bread and let the smell fill your house. Realize that you are special and have a purpose. We are the Goddess's children and the Earth is our home.