Mitologia celtica: Litha, il solstizio d'estate

In Gran Bretagna, a Stonehenge, sopravvivono gli imponenti ruderi di un tempio druidico: due cerchi concentrici di monoliti che raggiungono le 50 tonnellate. L'asse del monumento è orientato astronomicamente, con un viale di accesso al cui centro si erge un macigno detto "pietra del calcagno" (Heel Stone, detta anche Fryar's Heel, Tallone del frate).
Al solstizio d'estate il Sole si leva al di sopra della Heel Stone. Stonehenge, insomma, sarebbe non solo un tempio, ma anche un calendario.

ÁINE was the divine radiance of the June solstice whereon her festival was celebrated in Munster. In the north of Ireland Áine was thought to be a mortal woman who was spirited away at night from her husband's side. In the south she was associated with the fertility of cattle and thought to have a neighbour named Grian [sun], a goddess who dwelt at Cnoc Gréine [hill of the sun], a hill about 7 miles distant from Cnoc Áine. She is also linked to Cnoc Áine and the well Tobar Áine near Lissan, Co. [London]Derry, and Cnoc Áine near Augher, Co. Waterford. As Grian like Áine is also descended from Fer Í [man of the yew] and Eógabal [yew branch], some commentators believe she is the same figure as Áine under a different name. Áine is often thought to be a counterpart of both Aíbell [glowing embers] and Clídna.

Áine was commemorated in Munster with a procession of torches on the midsummer solstice in June and the month of June took its name from Juno, the Latin Hera and Hera was likewise associated with cows, bearing an epithet 'the cow-eyed goddess' at least as early as the Iliad. Juno who a goddess associated with fertile mothers, married women and the month of June and is the identification of a goddess named Annea Clivana (no offspring of the hills ), testified in Cisalpine Gaul.

Under the name of AÍbell, she is portrayed as an Old Irish goddess or fairy queen, associated with north Munster, a patron of the O'Briens. Her fairy mound is at Craig Liath (also Craigeevil), near Killaloe, Co. Clare. Comparable to both Áine and Clídna, she was a rival of the latter for the affections of Caomh. Clídna put her under a spell and changed her into a white cat. In other accounts, she accompanied Brian Bórama (Boru) to Clontarf and became a lover of an attendant, Dubhlaing, to Brian's oldest son. 



On MIDSUMMER’S EVE many years ago, when it became dusk, very old people in Cornwall and the neighbouring shires would hobble away to some high ground, whence they obtained a view of the most prominent hills, such as Bartinney, Chapel Carn-brea, Sancras Bickan, Castle-an-Dinas, Carn Galver, St. Agnes Bickan, and many other beacon hills far away to north and east, which vied with each other in theirMidsummer's blaze. They counted the fires and drew a presage from the number of them. There are now but few bonfires to be seen on the western heights; yet we have observed that Tregonan, Godolphin, and Carn Marth hills, with others away towards Redruth, still retain their Baal fires. We would gladly go many miles to see the wierd-looking, yet picturesque, dancers around the flames on a cam, or high hill top, as we have seen them some forty years ago.



MIDSUMMER DAY was also observed not only by the Celts, but by most European folk, the ritual resembling that of Beltane. It has been held, and an old tradition in Ireland gives some support to the theory, that under Christian influences the old pagan feast of Beltane was merged in that of S. John Baptist on Midsummer day.But, though there are Christian elements in the Midsummer ritual, denoting a desire to bring it under Church influence, the pagan elements in folk-custom are strongly marked, and the festival is deeply rooted in an earlier paganism all over Europe. Without much acquaintance with astronomy, men must have noted the period of the sun's longest course from early times, and it would probably be observed ritually. The festivals of Beltane and Midsummer may have arisen independently, and entered into competition with each other. Or Beltane may have been an early pastoral festival marking the beginning of summer when the herds went out to pasture, and Midsummer a more purely agricultural festival.

And since their ritual aspect and purpose as seen in folk-custom are similar, they may eventually have borrowed each from the other. Or they may be later separate fixed dates of an earlier movable summer festival. For our purpose we may here consider them as twin halves of such a festival. Where Midsummer was already observed, the influence of the Roman calendar would confirm that observance. The festivals of the Christian year also affected the older observances. Some of the ritual was transferred to saints' days within the range of the pagan festival days, thus the Samhain ritual is found observed on S. Martin's day. In other cases, holy days took the place of the old festivals--All Saints' and All Souls' that of Samhain, S. Brigit's day that of February 1st, S. John Baptist's day that of Midsummer, Lammas that of Lugnasad, and some attempt was made to hallow, if not to oust, the older ritual.

The ritual of the Midsummer festival did not materially differ from that of Beltane, and as folk-survivals show, it was practised not only by the Celts, but by many other European peoples. It was, in fact, a primitive nature festival such as would readily be observed by all under similar psychic conditions and in like surroundings. A bonfire was again the central rite of this festival, the communal nature of which is seen in the fact that all must contribute materials to it. In local survivals, mayor and priest, representing the earlier local chief and priest, were present, while a service in church preceded the procession to the scene of the bonfire. Dancing sunwise round the fire to the accompaniment of songs which probably took the place of hymns or tunes in honour of the Sun-god, commonly occurred, and by imitating the sun's action, may have been intended to make it more powerful. The livelier the dance the better would be the harvest. 2 As the fire represented the sun, it possessed the purifying and invigorating powers of the sun; hence leaping through the fire preserved from disease, brought prosperity, or removed barrenness. Hence also cattle were driven through the fire. But if any one stumbled as he leaped, ill-luck was supposed to follow him. He was devoted to the fadets or spirits, 1 and perhaps, like the "devoted" Beltane victim, he may formerly have been sacrificed. Animal sacrifices are certainly found in many survivals, the victims being of ten placed in osier baskets and thrown into the fire. In other districts great human effigies of osier were carried in procession and burned.

The connection of such sacrifices with the periodical slaying of a representative of the vegetation-spirit has been maintained by Mannhardt and Dr. Frazer. As has been seen, periodic sacrifices for the fertility of the land are mentioned by Cæsar, Strabo, and Diodorus, human victims and animals being enclosed in an osier image and burned. These images survive in the osier effigies just referred to, while they may also be connected with the custom of decking the human representatives of the spirit of vegetation in greenery. The holocausts may be regarded as extensions of the earlier custom of slaying one victim, the incarnation of a vegetation-spirit. This slaying was gradually regarded as sacrificial, but as the beneficial effect of the sacrifice on growth was still believed in, it would naturally be thought that still better effects would be produced if many victims were offered. The victims were burned in a fire representing the sun, and vegetation was thus doubly benefited, by the victims and by the sun-god.

The oldest conception of the vegetation-spirit was that of a tree-spirit which had power over rain, sunshine, and every species of fruitfulness. For this reason a tree had a prominent place both in the Beltane and Midsummer feasts. It was carried in procession, imparting its benefits to each house or field. Branches of it were attached to each house for the same purpose. It was then burned, or it was set up to procure benefits to vegetation during the year and burned at the next Midsummer festival. The sacred tree was probably an oak, and, as has been seen, the mistletoe rite probably took place on Midsummer eve, as a preliminary to cutting down the sacred tree and in order to secure the life or soul of the tree, which must first be secured before the tree could be cut down. The life of the tree was in the mistletoe, still alive in winter when the tree itself seemed to be dead. Such beliefs as this concerning the detachable soul or life survive in Märchen, and are still alive among savages.

Folk-survivals show that a human or an animal representative of the vegetation-spirit, brought into connection with the tree, was also slain or burned along with the tree. Thus the cutting of the mistletoe would be regarded as a preliminary to the slaying of the human victim, who, like the tree, was the representative of the spirit of vegetation.

The bonfire representing the sun, and the victims, like the tree, representing the spirit of vegetation, it is obvious why the fire had healing and fertilising powers, and why its ashes and the ashes or the flesh of the victims possessed the same powers. Brands from the fire were carried through the fields or villages, as the tree had been, or placed on the fields or in houses, where they were carefully preserved for a year. All this aided growth and prosperity, just as the smoke of the fire, drifting over the fields, produced fertility. Ashes from the fire, and probably the calcined bones or even the flesh of the victims, were scattered on the fields or preserved and mixed with the seed corn. Again, part of the flesh may have been eaten sacramentally, since, as has been seen, Pliny refers to the belief of the Celts in the eating of human flesh as most wholesome.

In the Stone Age, as with many savages, a circle typified the sun, and as soon as the wheel was invented its rolling motion at once suggested that of the sun. In the Edda the sun is "the beautiful, the shining wheel," and similar expressions occur in the Vedas. Among the Celts the, wheel of the sun was a favourite piece of symbolism, and this is seen in various customs at the Midsummer festival. A burning wheel was rolled down a slope or trundled through the fields, or burning brands were whirled round so as to give the impression of a fiery wheel. The intention was primarily to imitate the course of the sun through the heavens, and so, on the principle of imitative magic, to strengthen it. But also, as the wheel was rolled through the fields, so it was hoped that the direct beneficial action of the sun upon them would follow. Similar rites might be performed not only at Midsummer, but at other times, to procure blessing or to ward off evil, e.g. carrying fire round houses or fields or cattle or round a child deiseil or sunwise, and, by a further extension of thought, the blazing wheel, or the remains of the burning brands thrown to the winds, had also the effect of carrying off accumulated evils.

Beltane and Midsummer thus appear as twin halves of a spring or early summer festival, the intention of which was to promote fertility and health. This was done by slaying the spirit of vegetation in his representative--tree, animal, or man. His death quickened the energies of earth and man. The fire also magically assisted the course of the sun. Survival of the ancient rites are or were recently found in all Celtic regions, and have been constantly combated by the Church. But though they were continued, their true meaning was forgotten, and they were mainly performed for luck or out of sheer conservatism. Sometimes a Christian aspect was given to them, e.g. by connecting the fires with S. John, or by associating the rites with the service of the Church, or by the clergy being present at them. But their true nature was still evident as acts of pagan worship and magic which no veneer of Christianity could ever quite conceal.

Art by John George Naish (1824-1905) is entitled "Midsummer Fairies".

Il solstizio in astronomia è definito come il momento in cui il Sole raggiunge, nel suo moto apparente lungo l'eclittica, il punto di declinazione massima o minima^[1].

Illuminazione solare durante il solstizio d'estate boreale.

Il fenomeno è dovuto alla inclinazione dell'asse di rotazione terrestre rispetto all'eclittica; il valore di declinazione raggiunta coincide con l'angolo di inclinazione terrestre e varia con un periodo di 41 000 anni tra 22,1° e 24,5°. Attualmente è di 23°27′ e l'angolo è in diminuzione.

Il Sole raggiunge il valore massimo di declinazione positiva nel mese di giugno in occasione del solstizio di estate boreale, mentre raggiunge il massimo valore di declinazione negativa indicembre, in occasione del solstizio di inverno boreale, corrispondente all'estate nell'emisfero australe.

Da un esame di una tabella dei tempi dei solstizi si può verificare che il fenomeno ritarda di circa sei ore ogni anno (5 ore, 48 minuti e 46 secondi per la precisione), salvo subire un nuovo riposizionamento indietro ogni quattro anni, in conseguenza degli anni bisestili, introdotti proprio per evitare un progressivo disallineamento delle stagioni con il calendario. A causa di queste variazioni può capitare che il solstizio astronomico cada nell'emisfero nord (emisfero boreale) il 20 o il 21 giugno per l'estate, o il 21 o 22 dicembre per l'inverno.

A Nabta Playa vi è un circolo calendariale, dove due monoliti hanno allineamento Nord-Est in direzione del sorgere del sole il 21 giugno e risulta essere più antico di Stonehenge di almeno mille anni.^[4]

Tracce di culti solari si incontrano in tutto il mondo, dalla Polinesia all'Africa alle Americhe, e giungono fino ai nostri giorni: per gli eschimesi il Sole è la Vita mentre la Luna la Morte, in Indonesia il Sole si identifica con un uccello e con il potere del volo, tra le popolazioni africane primitive la pioggia è il seme fecondatore del dio Amma, il Sole, creatore della Terra.

Per gli Inca, la cui massima fioritura si ha intorno al quindicesimo secolo, la divinità Inti è il Sole, sovrano della Terra, figlio di Viracocha, il creatore, e padre della sua personificazione umana, l'imperatore. Attorno a Cuzco, capitale dell'impero, sorgono i "Mojones", torri usate come "mire" per stabilire i giorni degli equinozi e dei solstizi. A Macchu Picchu, luogo sacro degli Inca, si può ancora vedere il "Torreon", una pietra semicircolare incisa per osservazioni astronomiche, e l'"Intihuatana", un orologio solare ricavato nella roccia.

Per i Maya il Sole è il supremo regolatore delle attività umane, sulla base di un calendario nel quale confluiscono credenze religiose e osservazioni astronomiche per quell'epoca notevolmente precise.

Tra gli indiani d'America il Sole è simbolo della potenza e della provvidenza divine. Presso gli Aztechi è assimilato a un giovane guerriero che muore ogni sera e ogni mattina risorge, sconfiggendo la Luna e le stelle: per nutrirlo il popolo azteco gli offriva in sacrificio vittime umane. Leggende analoghe, anche se fortunatamente meno feroci, si trovano ancora tra le popolazioni primitive nostre contemporanee. Gli stessi Inuit (eschimesi) ritenevano fino a poco tempo fa che il Sole durante la notte rotolasse sotto l'orizzonte verso nord e di qui diffondesse la pallida luce delle aurore boreali: convinzione ingenua, ma non del tutto errata, visto che è stato studiato come le aurore polari siano proprio causate da sciami di particelle nucleari proiettate nello spazio ad altissima energia dalle regioni di attività solare.
Tutto il culto degli antichi Egizi è dominato dal Sole, chiamato Horus o Kheper al mattino quando si leva, Ra quando è nel fulgore del mezzogiorno e Atum quando tramonta. Eliopoli, la città del Sole, era il luogo sacro all'astro del giorno, il tempio di Abu Simbel, fatto costruire da Ramses II nel tredicesimo secolo avanti Cristo, era dedicato al culto del Sole.

Secondo la cosmologia egizia il Nilo era il tratto meridionale di un grande fiume che circondava la Terra e che, verso nord, scorreva nella valle di Dait, immersa nell'eterna notte. “Il fiume - scrive Dreyer^[5] - trasportava una imbarcazione su cui era un disco di fuoco, il Sole, un dio vivente chiamato Ra, che nasceva ogni mattino, cresceva e acquistava vigore fino a mezzogiorno, quindi passava su un'altra barca che lo portava fino all'ingresso durante la notte sino alla porta dell'oriente. In tempi più tardi il libro "Am Duat" o "Libro dei morti", racconta accuratamente il viaggio del dio Sole durante le dodici ore notturne, quando egli illumina successivamente dodici separate località dell'oltremondo. A volte, durante le ore diurne, la barca è assalita da un enorme serpente: allora il Sole si eclissa per breve tempo. Si devono agli Egizi alcune delle prime precise osservazioni astronomiche solari, in base alle quali i sacerdoti del faraone prevedevano le piene del Nilo e programmavano i lavori agricoli. Le piramidi sono disposte secondo orientamenti astronomici, stellari e solari. Gli obelischi erano essenzialmente degli gnomoni, che con la loro ombra scandivano le ore e le stagioni. Gli orologi solari erano ben noti e ne esistevano diversi tipi, alcuni dei quali portatili, a forma di T o di L, chiamati "merket": il faraone Thutmosis III, vissuto dal 1501 al 1448 a.C., viaggiava sempre con la sua piccola meridiana, come noi con il nostro orologio da polso. La prima comparsa di Sirio, la stella più luminosa del cielo, all'alba, in estate, era per gli Egizi il punto di riferimento fondamentale del calendario. Il loro anno era di 365 giorni esatti, ma sapevano già che in realtà la sua durata è maggiore di circa sei ore, per cui avevano calcolato che nel corso di 1460 anni la data delle inondazioni del Nilo faceva una completa rotazione del calendario.