It's the longest day of the year -- except for the southern half of Earth, where it's the shortest day of the year.

June 21 is Solstice, marking the official beginning of summer for the Northern Hemisphere. The sun appears to stand still today as the top half of the Earth is tilted at its farthest point in the sun's direction. Solstice is from the Latin sol stitum, or "sun stopped."

While hippies and other "neo-pagans" are about the only people in the United States who still mark the summer solstice, the day used to be an important festival back when people grew their own food and spent most of their time outdoors.

While most Americans don't even know what solstice is, let alone when it happens, Europeans continue to celebrate both solstices with drunken fervor.

Some say it's because summer days and winter nights are so much longer in much of Europe than in the continental United States. Others say Europeans sucessfully "kicked" Christianity in the last 30 years and have since embraced their pagan, nature-worshipping roots.

Whatever the reason, tonight Europeans are celebrating such solstice parties as Feast of Epona, Gathering Day, Johannistag, Litha and Vestalia. And at Stonehenge, neo-druids, dreadlocked drum circles, new-age cults and curious tourists lined up for the world's best-known solstice party.

Shakespeare knew it as "midsummer," the time between planting and harvesting. The first full moon after solstice was known as the best time to collect honey, and the traditional June wedding comes from pagan traditions of a midsummer wedding -- and that's why going to Cancun after you get hitched is known as the "honey moon."

Or not. Another historical claim is that "honeymoon" comes from the Viking word "hjunottsmanathr," which apparently involved some sort of rape, plunder and kidnapping that somehow resolved as a marriage.

The question for most young pagans today is, "What kind of witchcraft spells can I cast on people?"

It turns out there are all sorts of spells perfect for solstice. There's a love spell of some kind that you're supposed to do under the next full moon, but that's not until July 10.

There's another solstice love ritual, but you were supposed to start that last night, on Solstice Eve.

Needless to say, Christians are furious about solstice celebrations.

They blame environmentalists, feminists, homosexuals and teen-aged girls "wanting to feel powerful" for the pagan epidemic sweeping America.

One religious nut warns that "all of the pieces are in place for a full-blown inundation of paganism" in the United States.

"There's no question we are on the verge of an explosion," fundamentalist Linda Harvey said.

"All that is really needed right now is for some pop celebrity, one particularly idolized by teens, to openly proclaim 'I am a witch.'"

Many Christians fear that celebrity is none other than Angelina Jolie, who is now the most popular person in the world because she had a baby in Africa.