June 22, 2003

Solstice

The summer solstice is celebrated in Austria, as is the winter. It was a warm day here yesterday and we'd planned an outing of some kind, but after mowing, weeding and driving kids around there was no time to do anything else. My in-laws are away on a trip so we instead went to their house in the evening and watched television. They have two, so our youngest daughter watched cartoons downstairs (oldest daughter was away at friends) while my wife and I watched trash upstairs.

For dinner I drove to McDonald's and brought some stuff home. The attractive young woman at the window where you make your orders and pay flirted with me, I am fairly sure. Either that or I am losing my mind - after all, I am a man in his forties driving a family car with a childseat in the back.

When it got late, we went out onto the balcony (the in-laws live halfway up a big hill) and watched Midsummer bonfires blazing around the countryside. That's how its celebrated here, usually, bonfires up on a hill somewhere to which people hike, drinking. The kid wanted to go to one, but we were reluctant - she was already so tired she was nearly hysterical, and I personally was afraid of ending up at the wrong bonfire, one attended by thick-necked young men with SS tattoos and shaved heads, say, rather than normal people. And the local one had been rescheduled because yesterday was the local priest's birthday and he wanted to spend his birthday doing something else.

It's a pretty tradition - dark night, orange bonfires dotting the countryside. We counted the ones we saw on our way home, to distract the kid. Six or so. Maybe more. More orange glows, anyway, beyond the crests of hills. They've done this here, I think, since they discovered fire. They do it at midwinter too.

Posted by Mig at June 22, 2003 06:41 AM
Comments

Is it possible that you have a double living a parrallel life in the same part of world? Or just two weblogs that I've stumbled across?

Just curious or amused....

Posted by: Laura at June 22, 2003 03:41 PM

No, you caught me, it's a repost. Edited and improved, but a repost from my other weblog. Since there is little overlap between the audiences of the two blogs, except for you, I think that's okay to do now and then.

Posted by: Mig at June 22, 2003 04:10 PM

I used to live in Denmark, where they also have bonfires at this time of the year (actually on 23 June, "St John's Eve"). The aim of the bonfire is primarily to send all witches out of the country, to some small town in Germany called Blocksberg (which must be a scary place, as they've been sending witches there since Day One!).

Back here in northern England, and no-one really notices the summer solstice. It's a lot lighter for a lot longer, but there's no celebration. On the 21st I was on a bus at 9.30 in the evening, which was driving along the side of the valley. The quality of the light across the valley was incredible: it was like a slightly dullened afternoon, as if it was a photo developed with a matt finish. I sat in awe at what I could see. It appeared to be of no relevance to my fellow passengers, though. But you can be sure they'll be moaning about the days of early darkness, come the autumn.

Posted by: David (TEFL Smiler) at June 23, 2003 10:31 AM

I was thinking about your comment, David, as I drove home from work tonight around 9.00-9.30 PM. There is a glow to the sky here as well. And I was reading an article about painters in St. Petersburg who try to capture the special quality of the midsummer light there. It's easy to fail to notice that, sadly.

Posted by: Mig at June 23, 2003 10:20 PM

Indeed, indeed, Mig.

Maybe artists practise a different kind of visual perception to the rest of us. Some time ago I watched a TV programme about the "special" quality of the light in the Mediterranean. I'd heard that it was special in the South of France, but I didn't realise that it was more widespread. Apparently it has a brownish tint to it around Barcelona, becoming more greenish by the time you hit the Italian Riviera.

As I've never been any of those places, it's hard to understand exactly what they mean and just how obvious this quality in the light would be. It certainly sounds spectacular, though.

Posted by: David (TEFL Smiler) at June 25, 2003 11:23 AM