Many say that the Summer Solstice is the first day of summer. If this is so, why did it used to be called Midsummer's Day?
by 
hedge-rider
ANSWERS: 3
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I've always know midsummers day to be the 21st June...the longest day of the year as the sun reaches its highest point!
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I've always wondered this as well. So I took your question as an impetus to do some looking around. The best explanation that I could find points to the idea that traditionally in agricultural communities in Europe there were two recognized seasons; summer and winter. Basically, I suppose, a growing season and a non-growing season. The solstice would have been the middle of the growing season, hence midsummer. The online etymological dictionary points to the English word summer as being ultimately connected to the proto-Indo European root "sem" and compares it to Sanskrit "sama," meaning "season" and "half-year." This info puts us no farther ahead in figuring it out I imagine, but it's kind of interesting in any case. ;)
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If you look at it from the point of view that the sun starts rising earlier every day until the summer solistice, then starts rising later until the winter solistice, then each solistice is indeed the middle of the cycle.
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