![]() ![]() “It’s a magical setting in a nostalgic ballpark with fans from all over the world, not just Fairbanks,” says Alaska Goldpanners General Manager John Lohrke. This year, the Goldpanners will take on the Michigan Monarchs. While different teams have participated over the years, today the Alaska Goldpanners, a collegiate summer baseball team founded in 1960, carry on the tradition. No artificial lighting is used-that far north, the sunlight lingers past midnight on the solstice. Teams play on June 21 each year, with the first pitch thrown around 10 p.m. The Fairbanks Midnight Sun Baseball Game is a 118-year-old tradition that began in 1906 as a bar bet. Watch a baseball game under the midnight sun in Fairbanks, AlaskaĪ view during the 113th Midnight Sun Game between the Orange County Surf and the Alaska Goldpanners at Growden Park on Thursday, Jin Fairbanks, Alaska. New Sweden, Maine, which was founded as a Swedish colony in 1870, hosts its own Midsommar F estival, generally on the weekend closest to June 21. Others hold that if young women silently collect seven specific types of flowers and sleep with them under their pillows, they will dream of the men they will marry. Some Swedes walk barefoot in the dew, believing it will improve their health. It’s a time full of magic and superstition. Dessert involves sweet strawberries with cream or ice cream, or in a cake, and aquavit liquor is drunk to the singing of “ Helan Gar,” a popular drinking tune. Locals enjoy pickled herring and boiled potatoes with dill, along with salmon and meats. Family games (called femkamp) include sack races, croquet and kubb, which involves tossing sticks to knock down a collection of wooden blocks. Revelers dress in traditional costumes (long, flowy skirts and aprons for women and trousers with long socks for men, with differences by region), dance and play games at large parties. Ulf Palm/TT News Agency/AFP via Getty Imagesĭancing the Sma Grodorna (“The Little Frogs”) dance around a maypole decorated with flowers and leaves, while wearing flower wreaths, is a traditional way to celebrate Midsommar, an official holiday in Sweden. ![]() People erect a maypole for Midsommar celebrations in Sahl near Leksand, Sweden, on June 19, 2020. Let us count the varied ways that people celebrate the solstice. Others recognize the longest day of the year with such traditions as baseball games, polar plunges and visits to prehistoric monuments. In some parts of the world, people blend pagan and Christian traditions to celebrate Midsummer in conjunction with Saint John the Baptist’s birthday on June 24, which can include bonfires, barefoot walks and more. Those in the Northern Hemisphere will experience the maximum intensity of the sun’s rays and the most hours of sunlight of the entire year. Thousands of years ago, many monuments and structures around the world were designed with the annual cycles of the sun in mind, and some even align in special ways on the solstices and equinoxes.ĭuring this year’s summer solstice, on June 21, the Earth will be tilted toward the sun at its most extreme angle, with the sun directly over the Tropic of Cancer, at 23.5 degrees north latitude. Long before we could use astronomy apps on our smartphones, the ancients closely followed the position of the sun in the sky. ![]()
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