Midsummer Family & Children Activities
Author Unknown
This is a good time for clearing away non-useful energies, and establishing a stable base. Cleansing may include leaping a fire (a low one, please), or putting herbs symbolizing (or charged with) the non-useful energies into a fire. You may leap a fire not only for purification, but to re-energize yourself.
Litha is a time for healing of all kinds, and protection rituals. Some work can and should be done alone, but there is room for more social gatherings.
Get all your friends together with some drums and rattles, and dance the whole night through. A Spiral Dance would be nice, too. "Sing, Dance, make Music and Love, all in my Presence..."
Have children make their own "Green Man" mask. Cut eye-holes in a paper plate. Let them glue on real or construction paper leaves.
Go berry picking. Have the children chose their best berry and throw it back into the berry bushes as they thank the Goddess and the bushes for the fruit.
Make a Wicker Man and burn him in your Litha bon fire
Burn a Wreath in the bon fire or try using Wreaths of Vervain and
Mugwort which were burned in ancient times at the end of the festivals to burn away bad luck.
Many families placed roses on the altar, as this is the Goddess flower for this time of the year. Try this yourself for a beautiful and fragrant decoration.
Leave out milk and honey as an offering to the Fae folk
Have a mock battle between the Oak and Holly King. Remember that this is part of the cycle and as the wheel turns the Holly King will rise again at Winter Solstice
Put a ring of flowers around your cauldron or around a bowl full of mugwort
Hang a bundle of fresh herbs out to dry and use them to spice up a Litha feast of cooked summer vegetables
Light a white candle and place it in front of a mirror. Say your own Litha prayer over it, and then let it burn out
Make a charm to hang around your neck with a seashell
Have an outdoor breakfast picnic to welcome the Solstice
Stay up and watch the sun come up on the longest day of the year!
Draw a picture of the sun at sunrise and sunset
Try a fire divination, stare into the coals of your bonfire as it settles or look for forms in the leaping flames.
Create a ritual to bring healing and love to Mother Earth
Make a Catherine Wheel, or frame of sticks and withies (slender, flexible branches) with flammable material among the spokes. At the climax of your ritual, ignite the wheel and send it rolling down a hillside into a pond or lake. (obviously the hillside should be stone, bare earth, or covered with moist vegetation--no dry grass or underbrush!)
Make protection amulets for friends and family dispose of last years in the Litha bonfire
Couples who handfasted the year before at Beltane, tend to marry in a more formal handfasting at Midsummer or Lughnasadh.
May the fruit of our lives be bound and sealed to Thee,
O Mother, O Woman Eternal
who holdest the inmost life of each of Thy daughters
between the hands upon Her Heart
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
We swear by Peace and Love to stand,
Heart to Heart and Hand to Hand.
Mark, O Spirit, and hear us now,
confirming this, our Sacred Vow.
~Druidic Prayer of Unity~
Author Unknown
This is a good time for clearing away non-useful energies, and establishing a stable base. Cleansing may include leaping a fire (a low one, please), or putting herbs symbolizing (or charged with) the non-useful energies into a fire. You may leap a fire not only for purification, but to re-energize yourself.
Litha is a time for healing of all kinds, and protection rituals. Some work can and should be done alone, but there is room for more social gatherings.
Get all your friends together with some drums and rattles, and dance the whole night through. A Spiral Dance would be nice, too. "Sing, Dance, make Music and Love, all in my Presence..."
Have children make their own "Green Man" mask. Cut eye-holes in a paper plate. Let them glue on real or construction paper leaves.
Go berry picking. Have the children chose their best berry and throw it back into the berry bushes as they thank the Goddess and the bushes for the fruit.
Make a Wicker Man and burn him in your Litha bon fire
Burn a Wreath in the bon fire or try using Wreaths of Vervain and
Mugwort which were burned in ancient times at the end of the festivals to burn away bad luck.
Many families placed roses on the altar, as this is the Goddess flower for this time of the year. Try this yourself for a beautiful and fragrant decoration.
Leave out milk and honey as an offering to the Fae folk
Have a mock battle between the Oak and Holly King. Remember that this is part of the cycle and as the wheel turns the Holly King will rise again at Winter Solstice
Put a ring of flowers around your cauldron or around a bowl full of mugwort
Hang a bundle of fresh herbs out to dry and use them to spice up a Litha feast of cooked summer vegetables
Light a white candle and place it in front of a mirror. Say your own Litha prayer over it, and then let it burn out
Make a charm to hang around your neck with a seashell
Have an outdoor breakfast picnic to welcome the Solstice
Stay up and watch the sun come up on the longest day of the year!
Draw a picture of the sun at sunrise and sunset
Try a fire divination, stare into the coals of your bonfire as it settles or look for forms in the leaping flames.
Create a ritual to bring healing and love to Mother Earth
Make a Catherine Wheel, or frame of sticks and withies (slender, flexible branches) with flammable material among the spokes. At the climax of your ritual, ignite the wheel and send it rolling down a hillside into a pond or lake. (obviously the hillside should be stone, bare earth, or covered with moist vegetation--no dry grass or underbrush!)
Make protection amulets for friends and family dispose of last years in the Litha bonfire
Couples who handfasted the year before at Beltane, tend to marry in a more formal handfasting at Midsummer or Lughnasadh.
May the fruit of our lives be bound and sealed to Thee,
O Mother, O Woman Eternal
who holdest the inmost life of each of Thy daughters
between the hands upon Her Heart
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
We swear by Peace and Love to stand,
Heart to Heart and Hand to Hand.
Mark, O Spirit, and hear us now,
confirming this, our Sacred Vow.
~Druidic Prayer of Unity~
