During Litha celebrations, we take a moment to appreciate how everything is fully grown. The sun and nature are at their peak and everything is full of energy. It all radiates power. As the suns power is at its top, Litha is also known as midsummer and the celebration of the sun. It centres around abundance, inner strength and passion. To read more about this festival, read our blog about Litha.
There are different ways to celebrate Litha. Take a moment to find what Litha means to you and how you want to celebrate. You can take a moment to get into contact with your inner strength, visit nature to appreciate it at its peak or bring elements into your home. Like with making your own Litha wreath.
Making your own wreath
The Celts love symbols. Take the circle for instance: you see it not only in their calendar but in all their holiday decorations as well. Nowadays, we still use the circle by making wreaths in autumn and winter, but the Celts made them all year round. By weaving birch twigs into a circle an airy manner, you can create a basic wreath where you can fill the holes between the twigs with all kind of decorations. Do you want to try this yourself? Follow the next steps:
- Take a bendable twig, preferably birch or willow.
- Decide what size you want your wreath to be beforehand and bend your twig into a circle, starting at the thinnest part of the twig.
- Keep this circle in place with your hand or a tool like a small bench vise.
- Then, take the next twig and weave it around the circle. If you do this tight enough, the circle will hold itself in place.
- Keep weaving twigs on your wreath until it has the prefered size.
How to decorate your Litha wreath?
When you think of nature at its peak, what pops into your head? We think of flowers, lots of greenery and a forest filled with animals; singing birds and deer. All your associations can be used when decorating your wreath. Here are some tips:
- Flowers - Bring summer in your home by buying flowers or plucking your own field bouquet. When plucking flowers, please be mindful to not take too much from one spot, as to not leave bald spots.
- Use different sized elements - When using flowers or other elements, take a moment to think about the size of the elements. By placing one or two big flowers, they will become great eye-catchers. Use smaller elements and flowers to fill in all the empty spots surrounding them.
- Colours - The theme colours of Litha are white, purple and yellow. By adding these colours it will get a sunny feel. Don't forget to add greenery to fill in empty spots.
- Animal elements - If you want animals represented in your wreath, try adding feathers, a small bone or antler. You can even add small figurines.
- Fixation - Take a moment to decide how you will fixate the elements on your wreath. You don't want it to fall apart! You could use a glue gun, pieces of iron wire or some yarn. These last two options have the preference when working with real flowers.
Appreciate nature
If you want to celebrate Litha without crafting, there are still plenty of things to do! You can plant some flower seeds: not only will it help you feel connected to nature, but you also help bees and butterflies. Most garden centres have special bee mixtures; seeds of flowers loved by bees and other insects.
You can also enjoy the taste of summer by baking our lavender cake! You can find the recipe in this blog.
Dry some herbs to surround yourself with lovely smells. What about lavender, rosemary, thyme or sage? By putting the dried herbs in a small bag you can place them wherever you like.
Article by Lieke Jansen
