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Sunday, June 20, 2021

Summer Solstice

Summer Solstice

Today is the summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere – the longest day of the year.  Quite a few naked events happen on the summer solstice.  We'll briefly cover three: Stonehenge, the Fremont Solstice Parade, and the Jāņi festival in Latvia.

The stones at Stonehenge are aligned with the spot where the sun rises on the summer solstice.  Stonehenge is sacred to Druids, but it has also long attracted counterculture types.  This is a 1976 photo of a naked hippie on the wrong side of a barbed wire fence at Stonehenge on the summer solstice.

But other naked guys manage to get in for the solstice celebration.  This shot is from 2002.

Seattle holds the Fremont Solstice Parade on the Saturday on or before the solstice.  It starts with a naked bike ride in which cyclists paint their bodies.  The body painting can get quite elaborate, like this guy in 2007.

Or it can be much simpler, like these guys.

The police don't interfere.  In Seattle, public nudity is legal as long as it isn't “likely to cause reasonable affront or alarm.”

Did this Fremont Solstice Parade guy forget to get painted?  At least the carpet matches the drapes.

Latvia celebrates the summer solstice with the festival of Jāņi.  Traditional celebrations include making a bonfire and getting naked and skinny-dipping in a lake, which is where the people are headed in this video.

The summer solstice is also Hike Naked Day in the U.S.  We'll see that tomorrow.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

more about Jani in Latvia
In the town of Kuldiga (~10 000 people). which hosts the widest waterfall in Europe (Ventas Rumbas) and the longestroad brick bridge of his kind in Europe (169 m), there is the Jani Midnight Nude Run since 2000, this is not officially organized, but it is on the national TV news every year.
watch on the video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_W2PWATcyo, the Kuldiga report starts at 0:16, and yes, at midnigth the sky is not fully dark

By the way; I live in Latvia and just came from Vecaki, one of the 2 official nude beaches at the capitol Riga.

Unashamed Male said...

Thanks, Anonymous. Maybe I can post this video on Midsummer's Day next year.

SickoRicko said...

I love a parade of naked people.