From my Museum of Memories – 14 21 JUNE 2011, PARIS: SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATIONS i am in Paris on this summer day, the longest but not the hottest, and the whole city is celebrating, dancing, singing, playing instruments, singing or just merry-making. This is one of the city squares close to Centre Georges Pompidou that had invited me to present my theoretical concept of ‘Cinema of Prayoga’. Strolling around in the evening with my France-based daughter and her French boy friend, i find these lovely children and the youth celebrating Summer Solstice in Paris. A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year as the Sun reaches its highest or lowest excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere. So there are two solstices – summer and winter. The word is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sister (to stand still), because at the solstices, the Sun stands still in declination: that is, the seasonal movement of the Sun’s path (as seen from the Earth) comes to a stop before reversing direction. The term ‘solstice’ can also be used in a broader sense, as the date (day) when this occurs. The summer solstice is recognized and often celebrated in many cultures around the world, over centuries, but for me Paris is very special, musically and merry-makingly that goes on through the night temporally, and through the lanes and by-lanes spatially, that we kept navigating. Sharing with you both time and space that the city of Paris invoked without closing her EYES that summer solstice. Photos by Amrit Gangar
Posted on: Tue, 27 May 2014 23:58:42 +0000
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