The longest day of the year
Hello, everyone!
Last night we had a big thunderstorm in this part of England. Luckily the power supply wasn’t affected, so I can still post my blog. I think it’s a bit rainy where you are too, Naheed? I read in your blog that you like it when it rains. You said:
‘I like rains because they calm down everything around from scorching weather to unhappy and sad faces.’
Just a small language point here, Naheed. When you talk about the rain in general, as a noun, it is always singular. So, it’s better to write:
‘I like (the) rain because it calms everything down.’
It’s only when you use ‘rain’ as a verb that you put an ‘s’ on the end, in the third person:
‘It rains every day during the winter.’
You also asked me about the phrase ‘it’s second to none’. I believe this is yet another phrase that was originally coined by Shakespeare. It basically means that something/someone is better than anyone or anything else, e.g.
Tom won the gold medal at the Olympics. As a sprinter, he is second to none.
If you use the phrase ‘next to nothing’, it means ‘almost nothing’, e.g.
I bought this handbag for 10p at a second-hand shop. It cost next to nothing.
And yes, you can use the following two sentences in the same way -- they mean the same thing:
1) This weekend my best friend and her husband are coming from the north of England to visit.
2) This weekend my best friend and her husband are coming down from the north of England to visit.
The extra word, ‘down’ in the second sentence just gives a little bit of extra emphasis. It emphasizes the fact that I am in the south, and my friend is in the north. So from my point of view, she will be travelling downwards, from north to south.
OK, that’s enough grammar for this blog. Today, I want to talk about tomorrow.
Tomorrow is June 21st. So what? It’s just another day, right? Wrong! In the northern hemisphere, it’s the longest day of the year – because at this time of year, the sun is nearest to us. Here in the UK, that means the sun will rise at 4.50 a.m., and will set at 9.20 p.m. So most days at the moment, it is still a bit light at 10 o’clock at night. I can’t tell you for sure whether it’s really light at 4.50 a.m., because I’m never up that early, but that’s what it says in the newspaper.
June 21st is known as the Summer Solstice. We don’t have a public holiday (unfortunately) on June 21st, and for most people it is just another day. However, for some people in the UK, the Summer Solstice is the most important day of the year. These people are called druids – Celtic priests. The Celts were the inhabitants of the British Isles before the Romans arrived on our shores. The Celts worshipped nature and prayed to the sun, moon and stars. Really, modern-day druids should be called neo-druids, because they are trying to recreate a religion based on the ancient beliefs of the Celts.
Druids traditionally celebrate the Summer Solstice at a place called Stone Henge. This is a mysterious set of stones in the Wiltshire countryside, about an hour’s drive from where I live. No one knows exactly who made Stone Henge, or how they managed to build it all those years ago – Stone Henge is believed to date back to between 3,000 and 1,600 B.C. I’ve found a picture of it for you:
(Thanks to Chris Bond for the photo)
At dawn on the Summer Solstice, the rising sun lines up directly with the stones of Stone Henge. For this reason, many people believe that the people who built Stone Henge were some kind of sun-worshipping tribe.
I visited Stone Henge a long time ago, when I was a child. I remember there being a mystical atmosphere, and my small mind was quite impressed with the sight it saw. If you ever come to the UK for a visit and have the time, I’d highly recommend a trip to see Stone Henge.
Do you do anything in your country to celebrate the Summer Solstice?
After the Summer Solstice, the days will start to get shorter again. You’ll often hear people complaining that ‘the nights are drawing in’. In wintertime, it gets light only at about 8 a.m., and then is dark again by 4.00 p.m. And the shortest day, or the Winter Solstice, is December 21st. I don’t mind the long winter evenings that much, as long as I am cosy and warm indoors and have something nice to eat!
I’m not getting up at 4 a.m. tomorrow to watch the sun rise at Stone Henge, because I like my sleep. If you have to get up at this hour, you have my sympathies. Enjoy the longest day of the year (or the shortest day, if you’re in the southern hemisphere)!
Cheerio from a very light UK,
Jo
Vocabulary
If something is second-hand, it has been owned by someone before. It is not new.
If you give something emphasis, you give it extra importance.
hemisphere – this means half of the Earth, either north or south, either side of the equator.
If you want to talk about when the sun comes up and goes down, you can say ‘the sun rises’ and ‘the sun sets’. You can also use the noun form: ‘sunrise/sunset is at …’
neo – this handy little prefix means ‘modern’ or ‘new form of’
Wiltshire is a county in southern England.
A tribe is a group of people with something in common.
The nights are drawing in. This means the days are getting shorter, and it is getting dark earlier.
Answers to your comments
Maria – A couple of blogs ago, you asked about the difference between ‘ But it brings me on to …’ and ‘But it does bring me on to’. The extra ‘does’ just adds a little bit more emphasis.
Ahmed – You asked: ‘What does last thing at night mean? Does it mean before the beginning of the night (twighlight) or before the night's end( down)?’ It’s a general term, and its meaning varies slightly depending on the context. Its general meaning is ‘at the end of the evening’. Here, because we’re talking about birds, it means before the sun goes down (because birds nest when it’s dark). However, you could also say ‘last thing at night, I brush my teeth and put on my pyjamas’ – and this would probably mean just before you go to bed.
Antonio – you were almost right! Wembley Arena is next door to Wembley Stadium.
Uddhav – ‘as if’ means ‘like’ or ‘as though’. I’m not sure what books would be available in your country, sorry. But if you have access to the Internet you’ll be able to find lots of English language resources – starting of course with BBC Learning English!
Pary – when friends come to stay with us in the UK, the most important thing is to offer them a cup of tea. You do this as soon as they walk in through the door. Of course I also made my friends dinner (homemade pizza) and gave them my bedroom because it is the nicest room to sleep in.
Ana Paula – Muse’s CD is called Black Holes & Revelations. I love it! If you like (soft) rock music, you might like it too.
Tomo – I have been to the Sapporo Dome once, and it was really impressive. I’m not sure if it can hold as many people as Wembley, but the architecture was fantastic. I have heard of natto, but I’ve never tried it. I once saw a travel reporter spit it out, he thought it tasted so bad. Is it really that disgusting? Or was the reporter being a wimp (being pathetic)?
James – Yes, ‘to muse’ does mean ‘to think about’ or ‘to ponder’. I don’t think you would have really been able to ponder anything at Wembley – it was too loud!
Paul – I’m glad you like Muse, too! Only don’t mention Arsenal or Man U – my local team is Portsmouth, or Pompey. So I can’t comment on any other teams!
Benka – ‘slang’ is informal language. Usually, you should only use slang in certain informal contexts. For example, you wouldn’t use slang in an application letter for a job.
Melissa – ‘lol’ usually stands for ‘laughing out loud’, i.e. ‘you are so funny you’ve made me laugh’. I think a facebook name probably relates to the website facebook, www.facebook.com
Comments
Hello Jo! Where I live there aren't any special celebration on 21st, so I will go to work as a normal day. Although, the nights are drawing in, I aren't sad because during the next three months the sun will set at 10:00 pm in Spain. Of course this is a gradual prosses but the timetable of my swimming pool is until 10:00 pm all july. In august is reduced until 9:00 pm. I would like to visit Stone Henge very much. I seems a mysterious place. But this year I will have to be satisfaid with watching it at TV. My best wishes
Hi Jo, Namaskar, Thank you for providing us to learn more about the grammar. Yes, tomorrow is 21st June, another longest day of the year. By the way, I am confused, 21st June is a longest day of the summer all over the world or some of the place (Countries) only??? I am from Nepal, the standard time zone is GMT +5:45 hours. In our country also the 21 June and 21 December are longest days in summer and winter respectively. We never celebreate these days. Normally in Nepal sun rises in and around 5am and sun sets 6pm whole year. regards.
Howdy teacher Kent !! Resulting from the previous blog I confess that the Internet cafe in my dormitory has something wrong. In other word I am not able to acess the site right way. How is embarrassing !! Until the end of this day in the afternoon after lecture clssses I go ahead to update blogs at this stage ahead of doing homework. I read the last blog that it is rather interesting,isn't it ? Would it be OKEY if I will hang around with you in the next concert ? Hmmm.... I am joking teacher Kent . Chill out !! However you said that according to the longest day of the year it is extremely amazing. Now that I have not got a clue what about topic's today. Actually I am not doing anything in country to celebrate the Summer Solstice. I don't know why we are not celebrating but in my point of view I bet my virtual friends in some of countries may celebrate it indeed. According to this day I presume that you have a lot of time to enjoy with time sleep.Taking enough time for sleeping and then posing many marvellous stories I glad to read it on the whole time. Anyway thanks to Chris Bond for the photo , it is the picture of seven miracle places of the world , isn't it ? Interestingly I admit that it is second to none. What are you doing next? Please keep its pose very soon . Enjoy your time ....< Wisarut S >
Hi Jo, as I live in the southern hemisphere, I guess I'll probably experience the shortest day of the year today. I was amazed to learn that you have such long days there. To have sunlight at 9:00 pm!!! It's really hard to imagine. I guess it happens only in places that are near the poles, isn't it? Where I live, the days when we have sunlight later, we have it until about six thirty pm. But I guess the lengh of the day is related to the inclination of the earth rotation ax instead of the distance of the sun. I loved the picture of stone henge. I always found it very misteryous. How tall are the stones? It must be a very amazing place. Jo, thank you once more for your great blog. Bye for now.
Hi all! As Pilar said, we do nothing special tomorrow but I have to say that, at least in the South of Spain, we celebrate a kind of summer welcome party 2 nights after: it's called Saint John's night (it sounds so weird in english). From this night on we say it's summer. In Saint John's night everbody goes to the beach with barbacues, drinks and music and they stay there the whole night until the sunrise. In some beaches, they are music concerts with the most popular artist of the moment so it's very fun. I love this party! but unfortunately, this year I won't be able to enjoy it till the end of the night 'cause I have to study for my last exam in 26th.. next year for sure :) X Rocío
In my country we don't have any celebrations of this beautiful day. A lot of people don't even know that 21th is especial day. It's so sad for me... I realy want to have one more extra holiday! =) But I have decided to correct this mistake and I have even thought out how to do it! I'll persuade freinds to meet sunrise on the roof of my house. I think that view will be amazing.
Hello,Jo. I think we should look up to those people who worshipped and respected nature because modern men have hurt the planet Earth and now we are facing terrible pollution and global warming which threaten to destroy this planet together with the people living on it. Maybe this bad situation provoked the appearance of these neo-druids to remind us that we are on the verge of self-destruction. Never mind these "very serious topics", I need your help eith my English. I am confused about the way you used articles in these two sentences:"... it's the longest day of the year - because at this time of year..." and "...the Summer Solstice is the most important day of the year." You used the article 'the' twice with the word 'year' and once you did not. Why? I am expecting your answer. Thank you.
Hello Jo, I'm so happy to take part in the blog, you and Naheed are great. I wrote to you about the riddle, unfortunately, I thought Wembley but wrote Wimbledon (next time I will think twice before sending it). I live in São Paulo in a small penthouse with my wife Carmen and Wendy. Wendy is a lovely Toy Poodle with eleven years old. She is the joy in our home. Several birds like humming birds and parakeets come everyday in the outside part. They like water and sugar, papaya, bananas and sunflower seeds very much. Like you we love birds and get happy to feed them here in the city. I'm sure we'll learn a lot with you, you sound like a great teacher.
Hi Jo!!! I do like soft rock music (and I also like the heavy one), so I going to looking for Muse CD. Thanks! In Brazil, we don´t have any particulary celebration for Solstice. Hmmm... I guess that maybe some mystic communities here will do something to celebrate it. In fact, if you didn´t mention about it, I wouldn´t remember of Winter Solstice. The hotest news around here is about a scandal involving a influential politician, so... Oooh! The Stone Henge seems to be a wonderful place to visit. It´s indeed a beautiful view. Ah! I´m curious about one thing. Did you mention how many pets you have? Well, you know, the weekend is coming and I just wonder if you have other cute pet to give homework for us. :-) Best wishes, Ana Paula.
Hey Jo, remainings of temples which were aligned to the sun (concerning the solstice or somehow elese, I do not remember) I saw on Malta and Menorca. There are certainly more in the mediteranean area. On Malta I once took an english course for three weeks. It was really a pleasure to be there. There was lot to do in the spare time, e.g. sunbathing, snorkeling, diving. In my hometown we celebrate the soltice around a big fire. This will be fun tomorrow.
Hello Jo and everybody I used Google Earth to see Stonehenge. There, I found out lots of pictures of that mystic part of Englang (just make sure the Geographic Web/Panoramio layer is checked). This is an effective way to see worldwide places that you and Naheed (yes, I saw already Karachi) have already described. Indeed, just a way to get a feeling... Bye bye, Carlos
Hi Jo, very interesting to hear that you celebrate the longest day in UK too. I am from China, but have been living in Sweden for about 5 years. The Swedes celebrate the longest day ---Midsommar(swedish)---which is one of the biggest festival in Sweden on 22 of June. On the afternoon of Midsummer Eve, people gather for traditional games and ring-dancing around the maypole. Normally girl has a flower hat made from 7 different kinds of flowers on the head, very beatifull. Afterwards, they enjoy a traditional dinner of fresh potatoes and pickled herring, drink beer and schnapps and eat strawberries with whipped cream for dessert. Two years ago, my swedish friend Anna who lived in China for many years invited my family to her hometown which is a very beautiful city beside the sea. First we sang and danced around the maypole,then we ate the fresh potatoes and strawberry which are dirtely from Anna mother´s garden, very fresh........ This year, another friend will hold a big party in her house in the forest. My family will join too. I live in the south of Sweden, one small village named Almhult. I guess sun arises at around 3:30 and sets at around 10:30 here. It is the longest day in the whole year. We can even play golf in the evening. In Sweden, winter is too long and too dark, that´s why people celebrate Midsummer so happy. Wish everyone a good time this day, at least it is a Friday...
Dear,Jo.I have checked that www.facebook.com,by which you can contact with your classmates, coworkers, and old friends. Thank you for your explanation of LoL.I have made enough fun of myself on Chess.Recently i took up chess on internet.It's a lot of fun, though i feel frustrated when i was booted from a table.Anyway, i still enjoy, otherwise just quit.By the way, Stone Henge is full of mysteries,which i think is a great sign and wonder for the celts.Cheers.
Hi, Jo. Definitely, you know the Sapporo Dome far more than me! I've never been there and I've never been to Hokkaido, neither. Why did you come to Japan and go there? What did you see there? What Japanese food did you eat? Did you take a tour of Hokkaido? Aren't I asking too many questions? By the way, the reporter you've told me wasn't a wimp I suppose. I'm sure you and your other half Richard wouldn't eat natto at all. You're right, Jo. It's disgusting if you don't get use to eat it. I couldn't eat it first time because it was taste awful and smell bad. So maybe you have a simple question why Japanase eat natto? Well, I like natto now and eat it at least one a week. It's good for health, really. Do you have any stinky food in UK? Bye.
Hi Jo.In Italy it is so hot that I hardly slept three hours last night .Children have finished school and they stay up till 2 o clock in the night shouting,laughing in the streets.Last but not the least I have to take the underground.It's a third world worth service .We are all cramped(?) with a temperature of 40 degrees.I envy where you live.You don'have these problems
Hi Jo!There are some archeological evidence about the presence of Celts on the area of my land. We are perhaps descendants of a mixture of nations who were passed along the country. I`ve read a book written by a historiographer about Celts. It was a fascinating reading about moving the Celtic tribes along the ancient world towards the East as far as somwhere to Persia. Thanks for sharing this topic with us.Nice longest day!
Hi Jo! It is my first comment to you. However, I have been reading all your entries and I have found them enjoyable and full of new information. Thanks a lot. As for your question about the Summer Solstice, we do not celebrate it. I feel myself so fortunate because I had the chance to visit Stonehenge in April when I visited my daughter in England. Stonehenge is really marvellous and fascinating. I also thoroughly recommend a trip to see it. Jo, I would like to ask you why you wrote Stonehenge in two words: Stone Henge. I have never seen it written separately. Can we use both forms Stonehenge and Stone Henge? Best wishes,
Hi Jo, Your blogs have referred three places which are West-Meon (Hampshire), Wembley Stadium (London), and Stone Henge (Wiltshire). I did surf information of them, such as: Google, wikipedia, google earth etc. What I was very impressed was that Wikipedia has the information of a small village named West Meon “West Meon is a small village in Hampshire, England, with a population of 690…..on the headwaters of the River Meon” Such a place where only 690 people live there, the Wikipedia already has its record and its geographic coordinates, and I can easily find it out on a satellite map by its coordinate. What amazing it is! Only I can say is that the world is easier to know nowadays. Best Regards
Hello,Jo.my dear teacher.i was obsessed by a question for a long time,could you explain it for me that is how to use "being" and when we can use it.in your blog today there is a sentence"there being a mystical atmosphter"and i have read a sentence before"i"ll be asking people in Britain if the think they take after their mothers"why they use"be asking"here? please help me.thank you.
Hi Jo, I do not think there is any special celebration in Belgium because it is the 21st of June. In Spain as Pilar and Rocio said there is the St. Johns, that depending on the area there are different ways of celebrating but I think the common to all is to light a big fire that symbolises the burning of the winter. I have been several times in Finland and there they are more attached to traditions. I remember there where specific activities because of the 21st of June, quite often including folklore dances. Unfortunately they never forget to invite mosquitoes too. Today in Brussels the main “celebration” if I can call that like this is the European Summit but it has nothing to do with the solstice.
Hello Jo, How are you today? I hope you are fine. Would you please tell me what time is used in the Uk? Is it greenwich mean time or another local time? If it is GMT as it is the case in Morocco,then the sunset which you said at 9:20 pm seems too late. I'm also amazed that Pilar from Spain said that during the next three months the sunset would be at 10:00 pm. Since the three countries are approximately on the same meridian (greenwich), I'm wondering if we are talking about the same sun. I'm not a morning person and as a result, I don't know what time is the sunrise, but for the sunset I'm sure that it is about an hour before 9:20 pm, especially today the 21st June. Thanks in advance for your clarifications. Ahmed, MOrocco.
Hi,Jo! Just a small correction: since you are in the UK, June 21st is not the day when the sun is farthest away from you, but the contrary. It's the day when the sun is CLOSEST to you in the northern hemisphere. The day when the sun will be farthest away from you is December 21st, which will be the summer solstice here in Brazil. A big hug.
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