![]() His love, purpose and significance extended for all time. He was the King of kings and Lord of lords, not just for then, but for always and not just for them but for everyone. On Ascension Day the disciples came to realise that Jesus was far beyond what they thought. God has highly exalted, giving him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. ‘men of Galilee why do you stand staring at the sky? This Jesus, who has been taken from you up into heaven, will come in the same way you saw him go…. While he was going and they were staring into the sky, suddenly two men clothed in white stood next to them. On Ascension Day as they stood watching, Jesus was lifted up and a cloud took him from their sight. For them, his significance lay in terms of then and there, their own place and time. Even after his resurrection had broken through the fog of doubt and despair, they still saw just a fraction of the full vista rather than the whole. Thinking they knew and understood who he was, came to realise, in that moment, they barely understood anything. ![]() Those who followed Jesus during the course of his ministry. That experience takes us to the heart of what Ascension Day is about. ‘No matter you read about it or see it pictured, it still takes your breath away.’ ‘Nothing prepares you for the Grand Canyon’, he writes. He was on the verge of leaving, having waited for as long as his schedule permitted, when suddenly, just for a moment, the fog cleared and there before him stretched a view that left him lost for words. When he arrived there, the whole area was covered in freezing fog, so dense that he could barely make out his hand in front of him, let alone the beautiful panorama that he came to see. The travel writer Bill Bryson gives a memorable account of his visit to the Grand Canyon in his book ‘the Lost Continent’. During the time of the Summer Solstice, inhabitants of the British Isles and Scandinavia have nearly a full day of sunlight, making it easy for them to imagine how the Pagans once lived and they reenact the traditions of old.Over the next month we come to the end of the season of Easter and think about Ascension Day, Thy Kingdom Come and Pentecost. In Sweden, it comes only second to Christmas and people travel from all over the world to experience it themselves. Today, it’s still a celebrated holiday and it’s incredibly popular. It was hard to find green leaves during that time, and the holiday was moved to Midsummer. In their rituals, the Maypole was decorated with leaves and raised on May 1, which is where the name comes from. Germanic neopagans called their summer solstice festival Litha. In the Middle Ages, Germany had its own Midsummer rituals which would eventually be adopted by Sweden and others. It was celebrated by bathing in water the night before for purification, a feast, and prayer on the holiday, but despite the name change, some of the customs from Midsummer remained. In the Gospel of Luke, Saint John’s birthday is said to be six months before the birth of Jesus, which would put his birthday in June. In the fourth century, the holiday was changed to fit into Christian beliefs that honored St. It was said that spirits were free to roam the earth when the sun was turning towards the southern hemisphere. ![]() They danced around maypoles, fashioned garnets, and herbs were picked on Midsummer’s Eve and bonfires were used to keep away any evil spirits. The pagans believed that plants had healing properties during the summer solstice and they honored the day showing reverence to nature with rituals. Midsummer started as a pagan ritual for fertility and a successful harvest during the Stone Age.
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