Welcome to the first ever edition of Coffee and a Crossword!

I love starting my day with both, and at some point had the brilliant and possibly overambitious idea of writing (setting) my own. So, welcome also to the inside of my brain and forgive me if things are a bit clunky as I get started. In my wilful optimism, I did not read up about setting crosswords and I have no means of gauging how ‘solvable’ my clues are other than obviously, I myself know the answers. I’m dead keen to hear how you find it!

I had two things very much front of mind when thinking about this theme - the summer solstice (and summer in general), and the boundaries between one thing and another. The solstice marks the midpoint of our year, the meeting of Spring and Summer, and I’ve been thinking a lot about midpoints and middles and things that are neither one thing nor another.

All the clues are related, and any errors are my own (I did use Claude to help me plot the best crossword layout, but the words and clues are all me).

The Crossword

(scroll down for a printable black and white version, if you want to complete by hand)

Let me know how you found it!

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Musings

I learned more about some of the things that interested me while compiling this crossword. If you don’t care for that at all, and you just want to know the answers, you can jump right on ahead to the bottom of the article.

I can’t talk about the things I learned without giving away some spoilers, so I recommend you don’t read any further until you’ve finished the crossword. Consider yourselves warned.

The word ‘solstice’ comes from the Latin words for ‘sun’ (sol) and ‘to stand’ (sistere) - literally the day the sun stands still. During the summer solstice, the earth’s axis is tilted as close to the sun as it gets, meaning that in the northern hemisphere the sun is at its highest point in the sky. It’s also the longest day of the year, and the shortest night. Weirdly, the summer solstice and Midsummer’s Day are normally a few days apart (this year the 21st and 24th of June). People much smarter than me think the difference comes from variations in the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

Folks have been celebrating the solstice for thousands of years - the most iconic reference to this in the UK is Stonehenge, built to line up with the arc of the sun on the longest day of the year, which suggests people were tracking and celebrating the solstices at least 5000 years ago. I like marking the day too - this year I spent it floating in the Levantine sea (which was glorious and a shade of blue I couldn’t believe wasn’t filtered). It makes me feel like I have a point of connection with people who lived unfathomably long ago, and like I’m part of something bigger.

Mysticism and magic are a common theme in midsummer folklore across the world as well as in the UK. Magic was thought to be strongest during the summer solstice and myths told of the world turning upside down or the sun standing still at midsummer.

In ancient China, masculine “yang” forces and the heavens were honored on the winter solstice, while feminine “yin” forces and the earth were worshiped on the longest day of the year every June. Today in Beijing it’s considered auspicious to eat noodles on the summer solstice. The Mayans also marked the solstice, and we can still see evidence of that today visiting sites like Chichén Itzá and Tikal where celebrations are still held. Swedish Midsommar is the biggest holiday of the year, and a fabulous party if you can get invited - most families gather to celebrate by drinking, eating and dancing. Similar celebrations kick off in Finland (Juhannus) and Denmark and Norway (St Hans Eve). In Austria, people light massive bonfires up the mountains, and in Lithuania people creep out in the early hours of the morning to gather dewdrops, which were believed to have mystical qualities useful for predicting the future.

In Greek mythology, the changing seasons are attributed to the abduction (and return) of Persphone - the daughter of Zeus and Demeter (goddess of the harvest). Hades, the god of the underworld, wanted to marry Persephone and make her his queen - but he knew Demeter would not sanction the marriage, so instead he decides to kidnap her and cart her off to the underworld. The stories vary (as you might expect over thousands of years), but most versions suggest that Zeus was in on this arrangement.

Fortunately, at least one parent seemed to care about her wellbeing and Demeter is so distraught by Persephone’s disappearance that she abandons Mount Olympus to search the earth for her. Demeter is so upset and angry that she goes around forbidding all the trees to bear fruit and making the earth barren, causing a great famine.

Impossible to say whether Zeus has any regrets at this point (though I think there’s plenty of evidence to suggest he probs did not) however in the face of all humanity starving to death he did decide to intervene. He sends Hermes to the underworld to bring Persephone back. Before she can leave, Hades tricks her into eating some pomegranate seeds - because she has eaten food from the underworld, she is permanently bound to it. As a result, she must spend part of the year in the underworld with Hades, and part of the year on earth with her mother Demeter.

When Persephone returns, Demeter relents and allows the crops to grow again on earth. Ancient Greek ceremonies honour Demeter and Persephone on the summer solstice, the peak of their wheat harvest.

Just across the Ionian sea, the Romans celebrated the festival of Vestalia. Vesta was the goddess of the hearth fire and of the home - and also symbolized the city and people of Rome. Famously, her temple was tended by the Vestal Virgins, who kept a sacred flame constantly burning. If the flame were to go out, people believe Rome would fall.

The Vestal Virgins were chosen from typically wealthy families, when they were 6-10 years old. They would serve the temple for 30 years, swearing a vow of chastity, and wore clothing and hairstyles that a bride would wear on her wedding day. It was probably a pretty comfortable life - unless you broke your vow of chastity, in which case you were buried alive. Roman law forbade both spilling a Vestal’s blood and burying dead within the city walls, so they came up with a nifty way to get around both laws by burying the Vestal in a room with a few days worth of food and water. Understandably, this was a rare occurrence and most of the women served out their 30 years and retired with a nice pension. The temple was finally closed by the emperor Theodosius in 394CE after Christianity became the official religion of Rome.

Bits and bobs

Artwork for this edition is the gorgeous ‘summer solstice’ repeating pattern from Vicky Rogers:

Do The Right Thing is currently available on Prime Video - but only til the end of the month! It’s a great film, very intense, and definitely a conversation starter.

If the solstice has you feeling witchy, and you want to tap in to that, you might enjoy this article from Erika over at Cheese Sex Death;

Cheese Sex Death

Drawing Down the Sun

Hello and happy (almost) summer solstice…

Read more

a month ago · 22 likes · 4 comments · Erika Kubick

And if you want to learn more about the highs and lows of life for the Vestal Virgins, you might like this podcast;

That’s all for this edition, folks - enjoy the sunshine and stay safe in the heat!

Printable and Answers

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