Summer Solstice is celebrated in Ireland not on June 21 but June 23, the former longest day of the year. Towns, villages, hamlets and clusters of neighbors honor the pagan day by gathering anything that will burn, building a sky-high pile of refuse, pallets, mattresses, and even a picnic table and setting it on fire.
In my village of Murrisk, the pile was gathered late and hastily on Monday afternoon. But I was told by neighbors as we stood around the fire that in formewr years, people collected stuff for weeks and added on to the pile until it was alarmingly high.Fron my front door facing Clew Bay, I could see other fires across the Bay and up into the Nephin Mts. And as I walked in to the village other fires were streaming smoke across the evening sky.
It's mostly for the kids and the old ones, although a few teenagers had plopped down on the periphery, backs turned to the adults, talking and screeching to each other as teens will do. The youngest kids all had brought small water bottles to dip into the small creek and spray each other with water. Soon they all were soaked to the skin and with the cold wind blowing off the bay it will be lucky if they all don't come down with pneumonia!
I spotted one of my neighbors and she introduced me to her friends. Soon I was having a chat and meeting more of my neighbors. Murrisk is a tiny close-knit village and people are friendly but make no mistake, it will take some time before I am accepted as the 'blow-in.'
As the sun shifted down behind the leafy elms leaving us chilled in the shadows, I headed uphill to home. The Nehpins across the bay were misted over in rain but for once, all was clear on our side. The sun doesn't really set now in the heart of the summer this far north in Ireland. It is still light at 1 am and then the sun is coming up again at 3:30.
