Upper Nyack celebrates the longest day of the year with a Summer Solstice Concert at the Old Stone Meeting House on Fri June 21 at 7p. Welcome the start of the summer season with Flutist Stefani Starin and pianist Heidi Upton performing compositions with a garden theme by Faure, Couperin, Messiaen, Paquito D’Rivera, Bach and more.
What’s so special about the Summer Solstice?
- It’s our longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. South of the equator, it’s the day with the shortest period of daylight.
- The sun sets more slowly on the solstice because the further the sun sets from due west, the shallower the angle of the setting sun, and the longer it takes to set.
- Many northern cultures name the full moon near the solstice the strawberry moon due to the ripening of the berries. The peak of our strawberry moon will occur about 60 hours before the solstice.
- The word ‘solstice’ comes from the Latin solstitium, which means “sun stands still.”