Virtual Summer Solstice celebration
![Summer Solstice.](https://news.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/062113_Summer_Soplstice_7009_2500-1.jpg?resize=1488%2C99999)
2013’s Summer Solstice celebration. Photo courtesy of HMSC
Celebrate the longest day of the year and mark the beginning of summer with the Harvard Museums of Science & Culture (HMSC)! While museums are not open to the public just yet, HMSC is hosting a special livestream on June 20, starting at 10 a.m. to learn about the scientific and cultural significance of the summer solstice and to enjoy an uplifting community event.
Attendees will participate in a virtual field trip to the Stonehenge UNESCO World Heritage Site in England, the famed English prehistoric monument, to learn why the site was important to the prehistoric peoples who built it. The field trip will be presented by the site’s curator and historian from English Heritage and moderated by Jane Pickering, William and Muriel Seabury Howells Director of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology & Ethnology.
Attendees will also travel to Cuttyhunk, Massachusetts to explore the world of oysters with Harvard undergraduate Skylah Reis ’21 as a guide to explore the world of oysters, a summertime specialty. Astrophysicist Henry Winter will discuss the importance of solstices to mark time throughout history from the Stone Age to the Rocket Age.
Throughout the day, the celebration will host uplifting musical performances presented by the Pan-Latin ensemble Sol y Canto, Fabio Pirozzolo, and Shelley Otis, who will showcase Celtic and Southern Italian melodies, and Cambridge-based Kuumunity Collaborations who will sing selections that speak to the present and motivate us towards a better future. A practitioner from the David S. Rosenthal Harvard Center for Wellness and Health Promotion, Andrea Heller, will also lead a short restorative-yoga session.
Explore activities to do at home such as making a flower crown and creating a MERGE cube to explore 3D museum objects. Check out more solstice-inspired HMSC Connects! offerings such as a podcast interview with Munazza Alam, Extraordinary Things — an in-depth look at solstice-themed objects from all four Harvard Museums; solstice-themed coloring pages from the Museums’ new “Drawing Upon the Collections” coloring-page library; a new solstice-themed Family enews and Story Time; and nature-inspired posts from the new Explorers Club Instagram.
During the event, attendees can participate in live question and answer sessions with speakers.
RSVP to receive the full program and livestream link: https://bit.ly/VirtualSolsticeRSVP.