Ultimately, you are here for embodied fun. Build sandcastles. Fly kites. Wrestle. Play foot-to-face. Run barefoot in the sand. Cook together. Eat together. Go swimming. Climb things. Sing songs as you hike the local trails.
Embodied fun is cool. I just want to flag that it would be nice if we can prioritize inclusiveness such that people whose bodies have more limitations than usual can still take part and not be shut out of the core of the holiday. (The above list includes some things I can’t currently do and some things I can, and there are other things in the “embodied fun” category that I can also do, so I don’t think exclusion is inevitable, I just want to flag this as a thing to think about.)
I’m interested if you have thoughts on “embodied fun” that would make for good examples for people with a wider variety of body types and capabilities – I generated the list mostly via “what would I find fun?” and agree it’d be good to include a wider variety of examples.
It’s easiest here for me to think of what I personally can and can’t do (my issue is foot pain).
Things I can do:
swim
play guitar and sing
build sandcastles
bury each other in sand
trade massages
cook, esp. roast things over a campfire
make campfires (I’m not personally very good at this but nothing prevents me from learning)
arm wrestle or something?
bike (though I bet bringing bikes would be too much of a hassle)
row a boat (though Idunno if anyone has boats)
breathing exercises
smell things (if we’re going to a beach and making a campfire, just the smells of ocean and fire are gonna be pretty great)
art (carving things out of wood? drawing things? braiding hair/making flower crowns/weaving stuff? woodburning using a magnifying glass and the sun!)
...those last two examples remind me that in fact there’s a traditional Russian summer solstice-equivalent festival I used to sometimes go to which is probably actually quite similar in spirit to the thing you want to do. It is organized by a local Russian folk song/dance/art group. Every summer they & guests drive out to a park with a lake for this holiday and do a lot of things that probably aren’t consciously chosen for the purpose of “embodied fun” but basically all are that:
first, lots of people dress up in traditional costumes
then, the women and girls make flower crowns while singing, and the men/boys do woodburning art (...I did both. you see in part why I do not go to this festival anymore)
then, the group leaders organize everyone into a circle and do traditional circle songs/games/dances. only the actual group members know the songs well enough to sing, but everyone gets instructions for the dances and games, so everyone can participate.
one of the dances involves jumping over a campfire
evetually, a specific song is sung, everyone takes off their outer clothes and goes in the lake and swims around (I think there’s a thing where women throw their flower crowns in the lake also and it’s supposed to mean something)
at some point there’s a lot of food
after all that traditional stuff is done, in the evening people will just sit around the campfire with guitars and sing songs
then camping in tents
Other than the uncomfortably gendered everything, I think this is possibly not a bad model for summer solstice. If someone has some circle dances/games they can lead (and people are willing to partcipate), this sounds like a thing that could be fun (though I can’t personally do it).
Cool – yeah I agree all these things sound great. One of the places we were currently looking at for this year’s Bay Summer Solstice is was actually pretty accessible all around (i.e. even in a wheelchair I think you could actually arrive fairly easily), and I’ll keep that sort of thing more in mind.
Embodied fun is cool. I just want to flag that it would be nice if we can prioritize inclusiveness such that people whose bodies have more limitations than usual can still take part and not be shut out of the core of the holiday. (The above list includes some things I can’t currently do and some things I can, and there are other things in the “embodied fun” category that I can also do, so I don’t think exclusion is inevitable, I just want to flag this as a thing to think about.)
I’m interested if you have thoughts on “embodied fun” that would make for good examples for people with a wider variety of body types and capabilities – I generated the list mostly via “what would I find fun?” and agree it’d be good to include a wider variety of examples.
It’s easiest here for me to think of what I personally can and can’t do (my issue is foot pain).
Things I can do:
swim
play guitar and sing
build sandcastles
bury each other in sand
trade massages
cook, esp. roast things over a campfire
make campfires (I’m not personally very good at this but nothing prevents me from learning)
arm wrestle or something?
bike (though I bet bringing bikes would be too much of a hassle)
row a boat (though Idunno if anyone has boats)
breathing exercises
smell things (if we’re going to a beach and making a campfire, just the smells of ocean and fire are gonna be pretty great)
art (carving things out of wood? drawing things? braiding hair/making flower crowns/weaving stuff? woodburning using a magnifying glass and the sun!)
...those last two examples remind me that in fact there’s a traditional Russian summer solstice-equivalent festival I used to sometimes go to which is probably actually quite similar in spirit to the thing you want to do. It is organized by a local Russian folk song/dance/art group. Every summer they & guests drive out to a park with a lake for this holiday and do a lot of things that probably aren’t consciously chosen for the purpose of “embodied fun” but basically all are that:
first, lots of people dress up in traditional costumes
then, the women and girls make flower crowns while singing, and the men/boys do woodburning art (...I did both. you see in part why I do not go to this festival anymore)
then, the group leaders organize everyone into a circle and do traditional circle songs/games/dances. only the actual group members know the songs well enough to sing, but everyone gets instructions for the dances and games, so everyone can participate.
one of the dances involves jumping over a campfire
evetually, a specific song is sung, everyone takes off their outer clothes and goes in the lake and swims around (I think there’s a thing where women throw their flower crowns in the lake also and it’s supposed to mean something)
at some point there’s a lot of food
after all that traditional stuff is done, in the evening people will just sit around the campfire with guitars and sing songs
then camping in tents
Other than the uncomfortably gendered everything, I think this is possibly not a bad model for summer solstice. If someone has some circle dances/games they can lead (and people are willing to partcipate), this sounds like a thing that could be fun (though I can’t personally do it).
Cool – yeah I agree all these things sound great. One of the places we were currently looking at for this year’s Bay Summer Solstice is was actually pretty accessible all around (i.e. even in a wheelchair I think you could actually arrive fairly easily), and I’ll keep that sort of thing more in mind.