5th of July - Old Midsummers Day
5th of July is the 187th day of the year
Old Midsummers Day:
The move from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in this country in 1752 has much head-scratching to account for. To bring the calendar back into line with the physical world a jump from midnight on September 2nd to the start of September 14th was necessary. But some people refused to give up the old days on which events would have happened – so the day that would have been June 24th and midsummer under the new regime was July 5th. Midsummer’s day whenever it is marked has many superstitions and traditions associated with it: great fires (said by some to be a primitive way of heating the sun to combat the shrinking daylight) were burned; and supernatural creatures were supposed to be abroad – faeries and elves among them (leading to one custom of leaving gates open that night to let them through). The canny of course would be aware that two midsummer’s celebrations were better than one. Neither June 24th nor July 5th fall on the summer solstice, by the way, that for us occurring on June 20th, 21st or 22nd.
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