The summer solstice 2013 occurred this week, marking both the longest day of the year and the official beginning of summer. People all over the globe celebrate the annual solstices in a whole host of different ways and this year's celebrations drew out crowds by the tens of thousands.
According to a report from National Geographic, the solstices are the results of Earth's north-south axis being tilted 23.4 degrees relative to the ecliptic, or the plane of our solar system. This tilt causes varying amounts of sunlight to reach different regions of the planet during Earth's yearlong orbit around the Sun.
The exact time of the 2013 solstice occurred on Friday June 21st at 1:04am EDT.
On this year's summer solstice, the North Pole is tipped more toward the Sun than on any other day. The opposite is true in the southern hemisphere, where Friday marked the winter solstice. Where the summer solstice in the North is the longest day of the year, the winter solstice south of the equator marks the shortest day of the year.
At high noon on the summer solstice, the Sun appears at its highest point int he sky, it's most directly overhead position in the Northern hemisphere. However, note that the Sun was not directly overhead at noon on Friday for everyone. On the summer solstice, the Sun shines down directly overhead at noon only along the Tropic of Cancer, a line across the earth at the approximate latitude of Cuba.
On the summer solstice the Northern hemisphere receives more sunlight than on any other day of the year and this event is celebrated by different cultures in varying ways across the world.
Two of the largest gatherings for summer solstice celebration this year were in England and New York City. In New York, more than 15,000 people gathered to celebrate "Solstice In Times Square" on Friday. These New Yorkers celebrated by taking part in a massive group yoga practice, as part of the all-day "Mind Over Madness" event, according to the International Business Times.
The Huffington Post reports that in England, more than 20,000 celebrants gathered at Stonehenge to celebrate the solstice. The ancient stone circle on the Salisbury Plane, about 80 miles southwest of London draws revelers celebrating the event each year.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that even more civilizations across the glove, both in ancient times and now, commemorate the summer (or winter, depending on your whereabouts) solstice in their own unique ways.
In Africa, people are drawn to the great pyramids of Egypt. They were reportedly built so that on the summer solstice, the sun sits directly between two of the pyramids when viewed from the Sphinx.
Down in South America, in what is now Peru, the Inca celebrated Inti Raymi to honor the winter solstice. The Mayans' temples, in what is now Guatemala, are also built to align with the sun on what for them would have been the winter solstice.
In India, the ancient Ajanta caves are also thought to align with the sun on the summer and winter solstices, so that the stone Buddhas within are "lit up at the ethereal moment."
In North America, Wyoming's Bighorn medicine wheel, a Native-American stone arrangement that is several hundred years old, was deliberately built to align with the solstice sunrise and sunset.
Other solstice celebrations include Portuguese commentators parading through their cities, young girls in Russia floating flower garlands down their rivers, celebrants in Austria sending a procession of candle-lit ships down the Danube River and Latvian runners racing nude through the town of Kuldiga.
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