¡¡¡¡Midsummer was the festival throughout most of England, most of Scotland, Shetland1, and the Orkneys2. Fires, dancing, games, and various shenanigans3 involving fertility were the general rule on this ¡°longest day of the year.¡± The passing centuries took their toll4 on this onceª²majestic occasion. By the 1680s, British folklorist John Aubrey5 reported that ¡°still in many places... they make fires on the hills: but the Civil Warres6 have put all these rites or customs quite out of fashion7.¡±

¡¡¡¡Millennia8 ago, Stonehenge¡¯s9 anonymous builders no doubt celebrated their own midsummer rites among the stones. More recently a British group called the Ancient Order of Druids10, founded in 1781 by a carpenter named Hurle, instituted an annual June 21 ceremony at the site. The latterª²day11 Druid rite, which attracted huge crowds, entailed12 a breadª²andª²wine sacrament13, candles, bells, incense, and whiteª²andª²purpleª²surpliced14 priests who shared wine from a silver cup as the midsummer sunbeams crept portentously15 across the old stones as in times of yore16. The Stonehenge rite was a local staple for many decades. In the midª²1980s, vandalism17 and unruly spectators imperiled18 the ritual¡¯s future.