The summer solstice in the northern hemisphere occurs annually on June 21 and is the time at which the sun is at its northernmost point in the sky. It results in the longest day and the shortest night of the year. The Northern Hemisphere celebrates in June, while the people living in the southern half of the earth have their longest summer day in December.
The event is annotated by festivals and celebrations among different cultures. In this picture taken in New York's Time Square, yoga practitioners salute the sun while celebrating the solstice on Tuesday, June 21, 2011.
The accompanying picture taken June 21, 2008 shows a traditional midsummer festival bonfire in Mahrersdorf, Lower Austria, some 100 kilometers northwest of Vienna.
Morris Dancer Tom Clare, from the town of Brackley, in Northamptonshire, England, poses for a photograph during the summer solstice at Stonehenge, near Salisbury in England, Tuesday, June 21, 2011. Clare said he danced from Avebury to attend the summer solstice at Stonehenge and now plans to dance from Stonehenge to make it in time for the Glastonbury music festival, which opens on Wednesday. Morris dance is a traditional English form of folk dance.
The ancient stone circle of Stonehenge is a World Heritage Site erected between approximately 3000BC and 1600BC and despite years of research the reason behind its construction remains a mystery.
Each year revelers turn out to celebrate the pagan festival of 'Summer Solstice' at Stonehenge in Wiltshire in southern England, on this day. The festival, which dates back thousands of years, celebrates the longest day of the year when the sun is at its maximum elevation. Modern druids and people gather at the landmark Stonehenge every year to see the sun rise on the first morning of summer.
A band performs in front of a store one day prior to the sales (posters at background), on June 21, 2011 in Paris, as part of the 30th annual music event, 'La Fete de la Musique'. Thousands of musicians took to the streets and stages across France today for one of the nation's most popular festivals celebrating rhythm and sound.
Launched in 1982, the 'Fete de la Musique' has spread to more than 100 countries where the festival held on the day of the summer solstice has taken off.
A couple in Augusta, Maine, enjoy the first day of summer while watching a child play in the surt at Old Orchard Beach, Maine on Tuesday, June 21, 2011. Summer officially arrived on the eastern seaboard of the U.S. at 1:16PM on Tuesday.
Aymara priests conduct a ritual as part of the celebrations of the Aymara New Year.
Belarussians in traditional clothing dance around a fire while celebrating Ivan Kupala Night, a traditional Slavic holiday, marking midsummer. During the celebration, originating in pagan times, people plait wreaths, jump over fires, and swim.
Iraqi prisoners perform a traditional dance during World Music Day celebrations at a prison in Arbil, north of Baghdad, on June 21, 2008. World Music Day (Fete de la Musique), introduced by the French in 1982, takes place every year to coincide with the summer solstice, and has spread to various countries around the world.
A group of Ecuadorean shamans perform the ritual celebrations for the Summer solstice inside a ring of worshipers at the Chochasqui ceremonial center, 30 miles away from Quito, Ecuador.
A paragliding flight over Muriwai beach on Aucklands' west coast welcomes the solstice.