6 ways to celebrate the summer solstice in Minnesota

Stonehenge. Machu Picchu. Minnesota.

Celebrating the longest day of the year is a big deal here, where a growing array of summer solstice celebrations embrace a mix of modern fun and ancient rituals. There are food trucks and flower crowns, performances and bouncy houses, music and bonfires as well as a host of DIY ways to celebrate.

"I do think there's a way in which we as Minnesotans, in particular, celebrate the summer," said Marian Diaz, director of Wisdom Ways Center, a ministry of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet that works to foster spiritual growth. "And especially after the long winter we've had, people are just ready to be out."

This month, both Franconia Sculpture Park in Shafer and St. Paul's Wisdom Ways are holding second-annual summer solstice festivals, bringing people together to joyfully shake off the heaviness of winter and, as Franconia Interim Executive Director Sara Rothholz Weiner said, "have a contemplative moment about the change of season and what this might mean to them."

This year solstice falls on June 21, but many events are happening earlier. Wisdom Ways' free Summer Solstice Celebration will be on June 16 from 4 to 8 p.m. and Franconia's "Midsummer: a Summer Solstice Festival" is set for June 17 from 5 to 9 p.m. with night-sky viewing at 10 p.m. (The event is free. Parking is $10.)

For more than six decades, the American Swedish Institute in Minneapolis has hosted an annual Midsommar Celebration on the third Saturday of June. On June 17, the family-friendly festival ($15 for adults, $6 for children under 18) on the grounds of the Turnblad Mansion will end in a dance party with DJ Jake Rudh.

Also on the 17th, Minneapolis' First Unitarian Society, which celebrates solstices and equinoxes to mark the cycle of the year, is hosting a solstice picnic-style dinner and a play.

But you needn't be part of a crowd to mark the solstice.

Although Suzanne Lindgren is set to give midsummer herbal body oil workshops at Franconia's celebration this year, she often finds quieter ways to mark the day.

"That could be a walk, a campfire, watching the sunset with friends. Anything that gets me outside for a while so it can kind of sink in — the length of the day, and the energy and ease and gratitude that come with that," she said. "Our bodies respond to sunlight in ways that are ancient and timeless."

Here are six simple ways to celebrate:

Watch the sun rise — or set

In Minneapolis, the summer solstice will have six hours and 51 minutes more daylight than the winter solstice in December. One of the simplest and most meaningful ways to honor that is to watch the sun rise or set.

"Witness the beginning of the longest day of the year and welcome the light and power of the sun into your life," suggests British author Kirsty Gallagher in her new book "Sacred Seasons: Nature-Inspired Rituals, Wisdom and Self-Care for Every Day of the Year."

As part of Franconia Sculpture Park's solstice celebration on June 17, organizers have extended an open invitation to gather on its commons balcony to watch the sun set — and then gaze at the stars in the dark, new-moon sky with telescopes provided by the Minnesota Astronomical Society.

Make a flower crown

Sweden's summer solstice celebrations, called Midsommar, are one of the country's most prominent cultural traditions and a time for everyone to don a crown of wildflowers. There's also a Nordic tradition of picking seven different flowers on the solstice and putting them under your pillow at night to dream of your future partner.

During its Midsommar party, the American Swedish Institute sets up a station to make your own head wreath with fresh daisies, ferns and asters.

Here's how to make your own, according to Ingrid Nyholm-Lange, the institute's director of experience: Take a piece of twine and wrap it around your head to measure the circumference, making a knot on each end to mark where your hands meet. Then begin adding greenery and flowers, wrapping with floral wire as you go.

"I usually start with a little bit of greens. And then I'll add a couple of flowers," Nyholm-Lange said. "You start at one end and you just keep building up and working your way to the opposite end. And then when you get there, then you take it and you tie it together and it fits perfectly on your head."

During Franconia's solstice celebration, artist Emma Wood is set to help visitors create a giant collaborative flower crown and make their own flower pressings.

Build a bonfire

Anglo-Saxon pagans lit bonfires on the solstice to "represent the power of the sun and guarantee a good harvest," writes "Sacred Seasons" author Gallagher. "Cattle were driven through the smoke and people jumped the fire to welcome abundance, the height of the year's crops being predicted by the highest jump." Ashes were later spread on the fields.

Bonfires will abound on and around the solstice here in Minnesota. At Franconia, organizers have planned an "intention-setting bonfire," encouraging people to reflect on the past year, think about what they hope for in the year to come and write it on a piece of cloth or paper before casting it into the flames.

Others use a summer solstice bonfire to think about what they'd like to leave behind from the past year by writing it down on a piece of paper and burning it.

Wade in the water

Ancient Slavic solstice traditions celebrating the birth of the summer sun, love and fertility (now called Kupala or Ivan Kupala Night) are still practiced in many countries. It's popular to swim outdoors. Women can release wreaths with candles into the water. Some say their future love life is determined by whether the wreath sinks, travels far or is plucked from the water by someone special.

During Franconia's celebration, artist Lacey Prpić Hedtke, whose grandparents are from Croatia, Slovenia and Macedonia, will create a Kupala-inspired experience by filling wading pools with "flowers, fern leaves, photographs, crystals and wreaths."

"Visitors can soak up the energy of the elements in the pools," she said. "It's powerful to connect to our ancestors through shared ritual, honoring time and the Earth under the same sky they were."

Visit an oak tree

Another simple way to celebrate? Spend some time sitting by an oak tree, suggests "Sacred Seasons" author Gallagher.

In Celtic mythology, which influences both neopagan and Wiccan beliefs, the Oak King was a summer champion who would engage in an endless battle with winter's Holly King, cycling through the year's seasons.

"The Celtic word for oak is 'duir,' meaning doorway, taking us into the second half of the year," Gallagher writes. "Meditate with these mighty beings representing strength, knowledge and wisdom, and ask for guidance on anything you are bringing to life over the summer. Remember that an acorn has within it everything it needs to become a mighty oak. And the same applies to you."

Dance outside

Dancing around a midsommarstång or maypole decorated with flowers and greenery is a key part of Swedish Midsommar celebrations, and ASI has a 15-foot one that comes out each year.

A backyard dance party to your favorite songs of the summer works, too.

"After a long winter, like Minnesota had this year, when the sun comes out and the leaves start turning green, you get that energy and just that warmth of wanting to be outside," said Nyholm-Lange. "I think that has been one of the big things that has continued to pull Midsommar forward throughout history."