The first day of summer is sort of a let down as we have had beautiful weather for some time. The important thing for me about the first day of summer is the amount of daylight we get on the longest day of the year. Where I live the sun rises at 5:14 AM and sets at 10:00PM. So we get 16 hours and 46 minutes of sunshine. With the long evenings we get , it doesn't get dark until 11:00PM and it starts to get light about 3:00 AM.
With days that have so many hours of sunlight our plants develop rapidly. It is a very lush time of the year as far as plants are concerned.
Ancient people always knew approximately when the longest day of the year was and celebrated appropriately.
I spent five years in the Arctic and have never forgotten the 24 hours of sunlight for about six weeks. It seemed to energize me and I enjoyed summer.
So on this longest day of the year I have to say how very enjoyable it is to celebrate the benefits we receive from the sun's energy.