Summer Solstice for UUCC
So, we the folks of Turning Circle pulled off another great Summer Solstice service for UUCC last weekend. I looked at my stack of programs, and we've been doing this since 2005 - woo hoo! This year was a combo of being both on actual Summer Solstice AND Father's Day on June 21st. That only happened one time before that we did a service on Father's day . . . and that was June 19th, 2005. However I must point out that wasn't Solstice day, so this year's service was really a first being both ON Father's day and the actual solstice.
I found a bunch of great tales of Father Gods from around the world for us to read aloud - a kinder gentler look at "God the Father" for those who grew up with an angry, judging Yahweh God. At first I freaked abit, wondering what I had gotten myself into. WERE there any positive Father God tales? In most pantheons I knew off hand, the father dude generally ends up being such a grouchy figure, or a womanizer who didn't seem to care much for his kids one way or the other.
I was pleased to find (with help from friends) Obatala - a Yoruban creator God who made mankind modeled from clay by the side of a pond. He gets drunk and starts making some of the figures deformed. Once they come to life, he realizes his mistake and vows to never drink again, and watch after the deformed forever more.
We found Inti - an Incan Sun God who sent his children to earth to teach the people how to build, and grow food, and live as civilized beings.
My acupuncturist mentioned a great tale about how Ganesh honored his parents, and we used that for the children's story.
I remembered how Odin, the Norse All-Father, sacrificed himself, giving away an eye for knowledge, and hanging off the world tree to be inspired with the knowledge of the runes - information he passed on to humankind.
Then I decided to honor the shadow side of fathering and did the poem to Zeus - Zeus's Lament.
We had some great music, and a good service, and despite a few minor flubs (which as a friend told me is often the best part of the service as it makes things funny) all went really well. I think the folks who attended really enjoyed it.
So it's always a ton of work, a dozen people to coordinate via email with during the weeks prior, and I always feel sick with some weird ailment right before the service. One year my foot went out. This year, my left eye went all wonky despite my allergy eyedrops, but generally right after the service, my weird illness clears right up. So wheeee, we're done with that for another year,
At home, we didn't do too much Solsticey things. I put my brass sun up on the back door, and we had cake and presents - but for Father's day and not for Summer solstice. Still, longest days of the year are here with green, and fireflies at night. It's all good.