Happy Solstice, by Sharlea Sparrow

by | 22 Jun 2018

After what seems a long and cold winter we are approaching the Summer Solstice. The Avalonian Wheel celebrates and honours Domnu and other Goddesses of Water. To me this makes sense as the North Pole tilts towards the South Pole and we love to enjoy the beaches at this time of year.

Summer Solstice becomes busy with weddings and enquiries for the weddings team. I decided to do a little research as to why it is still a popular time to marry.

The month of June derives its name from Juno, the Roman Goddess of marriage. It was thought that couples who married in June would be blessed with prosperity and happiness. She is also  the protector of women in all aspects of life, but especially in marriage and childbearing

During medieval times a person’s annual bath (yes, you read that right —just one really, thorough bath per year!) usually fell in May or June, meaning that June brides (and grooms) still smelled relatively fresh. The brides would have smelled more pleasant then than before but just to be safe, brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide their body odour. Hence the custom of carrying a bouquet when walking down the aisle!

On a practical note, others chose June in order, to time conception, so births would not interfere with harvest work.

Also, ancient tradition promoted it would be most unlucky to marry in the month of May because in Roman times the Feast of the Dead and the Festival of the Goddess of Chastity both occurred in May.

However, we conduct weddings throughout the year at the Goddess Temple. We love weddings, whichever be the month that they are held in. Whether summer, spring, winter or autumn, a wedding is always a special event. Having said this, there are practical reasons why June is a wonderful month to marry – the days are longer with the promise of warmer evenings, summertime is full of joyful colour, summer is the best season for flowers and of course summer bounty makes menu planning easy.

I shall finish with a photo of the many Love in a Mist flowers that fill my garden now throughout the summer. They are the blues of oceans and waterways and are also known as bride-in-the -hair!