The first day of summer this year is Friday, June 20, 2025, per the Almanac. That also happens to be the summer solstice, AKA the start of summer.
Is the First Day of Summer Always the Same?
Before we get into what the summer solstice is, you might be wondering: Does summer always start on the same date in June? No, it doesn't, and the same goes for all the seasons. As the Almanac's website reported, the Sun and Earth don't follow the same Gregorian calendar that most of us use. While our 12-month calendar is meant to coincide with the number of days it takes for the Earth to orbit the Sun, it's not exact. Because there are leap days and other discrepancies, our calendar is slightly off year-to-year, meaning that the days of the solstices and equinoxes are around the same date yearly, but not always the same.
What Is the Summer Solstice?
As Britannica reported, due to where the Sun is during the summer solstice, it "maximizes the hours of daylight in the hemisphere where it occurs," meaning that it's the longest day of the year. This means that leading up to the first day of summer, our days are getting longer. And then after this day, our days start to get shorter and shorter until the winter solstice which is the shortest day of the year. Like most astronomical things, the seasons are very cyclical.
When Is the Summer Solstice in 2025?
While meteorologically, summer starts on June 1 and ends on August 31 (because fall begins on September 1 for them), astronomically, summer ends when fall begins on the fall equinox. So this year, summer ends on Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025 (the first day of fall is Monday, Sept. 22, 2025, at 2:19 p.m. EST).Related: All of the Fall FAQs—When Does Fall Officially Start? And What Happens During the Fall Equinox?
How Is the Summer Solstice Celebrated?
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Obviously, the Gregorian calendar wasn't always used and didn't always exist, so people used to just rely on the Sun and its changing patterns year-round. This not only created ancient traditions that some people still celebrate today, but it also created monuments to track the Sun's position.One of these monuments is Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, whose sarsen stones "still align with the Sun's movements," per Smithsonian Magazine. As they report, people travel the world to see Stonehenge on the summer solstice because of this and stay up all night to see the Sun set and rise.Another summer solstice celebration is Midsummer Fests, and no, we're not talking about the Florence Pugh-led movie, Midsommar, although that is an example of a midsummer fest. But non-murderous midsummer celebrations have roots dating back to ancient Germanic, Slav and Celtic tribes who would celebrate in pagan tradition with bonfires, according to TimeandDate. But as Britannica reported, Scandinavian people are synonymous with Midsummer. It's a holiday that marked the halfway point of their harvest season and landed on the summer solstice.These Midsummer traditions then led to Christian versions as the religion spread, taking the pagan celebration and infusing it with Christianity. This turned into Midsummer celebrations that also honored St. John the Baptist's feast day and involved bonfires, fireworks and the Maypole.In terms of modern ways to celebrate the summer solstice and the beginning of summer, there are Midsummer celebrations all over the world you can attend (even though they definitely don't look like the 1500s traditions). On top of traveling to historic places like Stonehenge, you can hold your own Midsummer fest with a bonfire and good times. Plus, per Smithsonian Magazine, different places have their own traditions, like in Fairbanks, Alaska, where people watch a baseball game that starts at 10 p.m. on June 21 every year because it's daylight until past midnight.
Related: Celebrate the Official Start of Summer With These 50 Summer Solstice Quotes
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