Celebrating the official start of summer

There is no place like the Last Frontier to celebrate the summer solstice. In some Far North communities, the sun doesn’t set at all. Even south-central will see 22 hours of daylight. While you are celebrating, bust out these fun facts to impress your friends under the midnight sun:

• In Latin, solstice means “sun-stopping.”

• From the Vikings to Native American tribes to the Chinese, summer solstice has been a culturally significant time for more than 5,000 years.

• The heat of summer and increased hours of daylight come from the earth’s tilt not its distance from the sun.

– Kelsey Fiedler, The Alaska 100