Google Doodles for the Summer Solstice

It's the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere and Google has a Doodle for it.

Padmini Harchandrai|Jun 21, 2011, 10:39:17 IST

Google doodles for the longest day of the year, northern hemispherically speaking. June 21st is summer solstice in the northern hemisphere (winter solstice in the south), and is the period of longest daylight. The sun's reached it's northernmost zenith at the Tropic of Cancer. Many cultures around the world recognize solstice with rituals, holidays, festivities and other traditions, as it's seen as a time of fertility.

A Murakami for the start of summer in the northern hemisphere

The Doodle itself is a sketch by Tokyo artist, Takashi Murakami. His style of art is called "superflat" and is derived from anime and manga. In addition to today's Google Doodle, other Murakami works have included the albumwork for Kanye West's album, "Graduation" and he's had an exhibition of his artwork at the Palace of Versailles in France, where he filled up 15 rooms with his sculptures.

By Padmini Harchandrai

Paddy does not, we repeat, definitely does NOT belong in the category of Mac-head (yeh right!). She does get excited by her iPhone and her iMac and her iPod Nano and her Macbook and Bali's iPad and her future iHouse (patent pending). Ok, so maybe her head is a little bit forbidden fruit shaped. She likes shooting video (iPhone 4 camera zindabad!) and editing montages (Final Cut Pro zindabad!), whether the scene calls for it or no. In her spare time, she's either kicking it on stage with KB the keyboard or kicking butt at Taekwondo.