Happy Independence Day to all my fellow Americans.
How many people are aware the 'Founding Fathers' chose July 4 partly because it is Midsummer in the Julian Calendar.
4th July = Julian Midsummer! Did you know that that this celebration corresponds with the 'Julian calendar' celebration of the Summer Solstice? The Julian calendar (named after Julius Caesar) is 12 days 'behind' the current 'Gregorian' calendar, and is still used for dating by some of the Eastern Orthodox Christian churches…
The summer solstice was traditionally associated with the 'midsummer bonfire' festivities common across Europe until the 20thC, and would have been celebrated by American settlers on old midsummer day (Julian midsummer) before the 4th of July (signing of the Declaration of Independence) became transplanted onto it for the purpose of a national celebration. The Gregorian calendar was instituted in the Protestant world quite late after its adoption by Pope Gregory of the Roman Catholic church in 1582. Britain adopted it in its Imperial provinces in 1752 – including the US, Ireland and Scotland. There was a degree of controversy about this as ordinary people felt that their customary observations of days for popular nature festivities (with particularly pagan roots) were being interfered with by the state and the church who were seen as having no right to interfere with the 'natural order'. The disparity between the Julian and Gregorian calendars has been growing since it was instituted, from 10 days to the current 13 – this explains why similar 'national day' Solstice celebrations fall on different days, for instance – the Isle of Man's Tynwald celebration:
'Tynwald Day' is typically held on the 5th, 6th or 7th of July (depending on how the weekwnd falls). Again, this is a 'Julian' Solstice celebration! The people of this little nation still gather annually around a hill and hear their laws proclaimed by the Island's 'Deemsters' – traditional Gaelic Brehon judges, almost certainly part of a tradition in continuity with Druidism and Norse heathenism (which was related). Attendees traditionally wear a sprig of the plant Artemisia Vulgaris, and watch the Deemsters walk along a processional causeway to ascend a low hill from which the laws are proclaimed. The causeway is strewn with green rushes – said to originally to have been the tax payable at this annual event to the islander's pagan god, Manannan – still believed in by ordinary Manx people as 'their' god – even though the celebration has had a Christian church service tacked onto it!
Good to see that America still celebrates the old pagan celebrations!
July 4 also happens to be 13 days after the original Midsummer holiday in June 21-22, and a good number of the Founding Fathers were Freemasons.
I tried to find a connection to ancient Egypt. I know that this time of July corresponds to the Egyptian month of Shemu, but I haven't found any connection to our modern 4th of July yet.
The dog days of summer are traditionally the 40 days beginning July 3 and ending August 11 (according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac), which coincide with the morning rise of the Dog Star, Sirius. Ancient Egyptians thought that the “combined heat” of Sirius and the Sun caused summer’s swelter.
Thursday July 5th is Aphelion, when the Earth at its most distant point from the Sun for the year; 94,508,060 miles. Our average distance from the Sun is 92,955,696 million miles.
4th of July Anniversaries: In 1054 on July 4, the Crab Nebula supernova was first observed and reported by many non-western astronomers. It was so bright that it was visible during the day for three weeks, and finally faded from view two years later.
In 1868 on July 4, Henrietta Leavitt born. Her discovery of the period/luminosity relationship discovery made it possible for Hubble to determine that the universe is expanding.
And for those who are suffering in this summer weather: Be glad you don’t live on Mars, which is currently experiencing a planet-wide dust storm.
If anyone else can find an Ancient Egyptian connection let us know.