Ring Out Solstice Bells

The village teenagers had called a meeting with the council and elders. It may seem unusual that young people were driving song something, but they used the power of the web to gain knowledge and discovered an old ritual that was performed on the Summer Solstice and wanted to push for its revival.

There had been a lot of petty crime in the village, including using knives to threaten people, although no one had been hurt.

Budget cuts had meant that the village had lost its policeman, chemist and doctor and the local Post Office was probably on its last legs.

The teenagers met with the council and elders and this was the ritual that they put forward that would bring regeneration, first to the village and then spread out to adjacent communities and hopefully the whole country and even abroad.

These were the words they had found, hidden in a cairn at the centre of the Stone Circle outside the village:

At Every Solstice The Bells Will Ring

Swords And Weapons Will Be Melted Down

So Together The People Will Build

A Golden Future Will Be Fulfilled

All For All, The Angel Choirs Will Sing

And Once More Love And Peace Will Be Crowned

"This is swords into ploughshares, isn't it," said one of the councillors.

"It is," said a teenager "but just think, if the money spent on destructive items such as weapons, were spent on building for the community, think how much life would improve for everyone".

"So how do we go about this?" asked one of the elders.

"At sunrise on the day of the solstice, both summer and winter, we ring out bells, any we can find, but as we still have the church bell that can lead, then we have a bonfire and we toss none flammable dangerous things such as knives onto it, and we then collect donations from everyone present and use them to benefit the community" the words of one of the teenagers.

"Ok tell us what you need and we will go for it," said the councillors and elders.

It was the first step into a new future.

This then happened every Solstice.

Petty crime dropped and people became happier.

A new community centre was built for all ages, and that meant that people had somewhere to go and something to do.

The village got a new doctor, and policeman, and though the crime had dropped the policeman was there in an advisor role as a community aide.

Life was improving for the whole village, and they also got a chemist as well.

Everyone spoke to each other and helped each other when it was needed. No one felt that they couldn't for help.

The village had had a food bank, but that closed because it was no longer needed, but the council did maintain a charity fund in case anyone fell into hardship.

The Solstice Rituals were maintained religiously (they realised the irony of this statement), and this caught the notice of other villages that started to take up the ringing of the solstice bells.

For everyone, the Solstice Ritual had made their life and community much more fulfilling.