Summer Season: Google Doodle Marks Start of Hottest Season in Northern Hemisphere

It's a midsummer night's dream on Friday for those in the northern hemisphere enjoying the longest day of the year.

Google has marked the summer solstice with a quaint Doodle that has the personification of the planet Earth looking up to a deckchair underneath a palm tree lodged on the North Pole.

The solstice, from the Latin "sol" meaning "sun" and "sistere" meaning to "stand still," takes place on June 21, which, clouds permitting, means people can enjoy the most daylight of any day of the year.

This is because the Earth is tilted at its greatest point towards the Sun, which is at its highest over the Tropic of Cancer.

It marks the astrological start of summer, although according to the meteorological calendar, summer began on June 1 and will end on August 31.

However unlike other planets in the Solar System, just because it is the longest day, does not mean that it is the hottest one.

The hottest day usually takes place around six weeks after the summer solstice, because the oceans contain a tremendous amount of heat and are slow to change their temperature, according to Forbes.

The extended daylight is considered to be a significant cultural event in many countries.

In the U.K, The Mirror reported that around 15,000 people gathered at the neolithic monuments at Stonehenge in Wiltshire to watch the sunrise at 4.52am BST. The annual event, believed to have been marked for thousands of years, has strong connections with paganism and symbolizes rebirth.

It is also significant elsewhere. During the Slavic holiday of "Ivan Kupala", people wear floral wreaths and dance around and jump over bonfires. In Sweden, tradition dictates that for midsummer, people dance around a maypole and feast on herring and vodka, according to CNN.

In neighboring Finland, the summer solstice, known as "Juhannus", in honor of John the Baptist, sees Finns light bonfires and erect maypoles, The Independent reported.

The people of Fairbanks, Alaska, get up to 22.5 hours of daylight in the summer and mark the solstice with a nighttime baseball game, National Geographic reported.

Meanwhile in Spain, two days later on 23 June, midsummer is celebrated with a party, also in honor of Saint John the Baptist, as people light bonfires and gather traditional medicinal plants.