The eclipse of the sun god

Last weekend was the summer solstice, the time of year when the sun is declared king and the temperatures are soaring. Well, supposedly that's the way it works. Except it doesn't always work that way—especially in Grand Marais!

There is always a festival celebrating the summer solstice. Part of that is a pageant put on by the local players; this year it featured a celebration of the north woods—complete with kids on stilts looking like trees and a TALL sun god on very tall stilts and a larger than life Bacchus with green face. Over all it was a cute and well done performance.

Except that the temperature was about 40°F for the performance and the whole weekend was foggy. The sun didn't shine at all. The temperature didn't get above about 60° and most of the time is was in the low 50s° to mid-40s°. The fog would roll in and the temperatures would crash. The fog would subside a bit, and the temperature would recover a bit. So much for the power of the sun god!

I found it highly ironic and not a little amusing. Maybe if there had been more or better sacrifices? Or maybe the sun god's priests didn't perform the liturgy correctly. Or...maybe the sun god isn't sovereign over the weather! Maybe only the Christian God is sovereign. Something to think about, isn't it?