Midsummer Day. Feast of St. John the Baptist. In very ancient times, this day was as important in marking the year as its opposite, Christmas, on 12/25. Among the most ancient sky scientists, who made their calculations millennia before the oldest written records that we have found so far from Ur and India, this was the actual day of the Summer Solstice, and thus it is still celebrated throughout the world in fire festivals that symbolically purify the fields to make the crop healthy.

The Aztec Festival of the Sun falls on this day each year.

In the Baha'i calendar, this day honors the Deity as Rahmat, or Mercy.

6/29 (Sun):

Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul. As Peter was the "rock" on which Jesus was said to have founded his church, Roman Catholics have long considered this day auspicious for beginning the foundations of new buildings, and praying for safe and smooth construction throughout the Summer. Alternately, this was celebrated as the feast of St. Peter, the next day as St. Paul's day.

Among the Yoruba and Santeria communities of Africa and the Americas, this is the feast of the Orisha Eleggua, the intercessor and protector, who reveals the destiny of souls.

For devotees of the Zoroastrian faith, these days are sacred to Haurvatat, creator and sustainer of the element of water, one of the 14 emanations of the supreme deity Ahura Mazda.

6/30 (Mon):

Feast of St. Paul, the first and most successful evangelist in the history of Christianity, and, if 1 Corinthians 13 and his famous speech on the Areopagus to the skeptical citizens of Athens (Acts 17) are anything to go by, one of the most gifted poets of his time.

Copyright 2008 Dan Furst. All Rights Reserved.