This is the twenty-second issue of my free newsletter. Your feedback is most welcome!
The moment when the sun “stands still” will occur at 2:04 AM on December 22nd (East Coast time) and 11:04 PM on December 21st, West Coast time. On the longest night of the year, we give thanks for the return of the light.
The Winter Solstice was celebrated very widely in ancient times. Imagine our ancestors (in Northern climates) huddled around fires trying to stay warm, fearing that the days would simply get shorter and shorter and that there would be no food; when the turning point came and the days began lengthening, there was great joy! The Mesopotamians are believed to have had a 12-day festival of renewal, designed to help the god Marduk tame the monsters of chaos for one more year. Newgrange in Ireland is a huge circular stone structure about 5,000 years old (older than the Egyptian pyramids), built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at dawn on winter solstice. The ancient Incas celebrated the Sun god. The Egyptian god/man/savior, Osiris, was said to have died on December 21, but then was reborn. In ancient Rome, Saturnalia was a festival which lasted a week, honoring “the birthday of the unconquered Sun.” In Iran, fires were burned through the night to help the sun battle the darkness (associated with evil). The word “Yule” comes from the Norse “Jul”, which means wheel (as in the “wheel of the seasons”). The Chumash, Pueblo, and Hopi had celebrations involving prayer-stick making, purification, blessing, and feasting, around the Solstice. Of course, many modern traditions such as Christmas and Chanukah (the festival of lights) coincide with the Winter Solstice, which was a Pagan holy day long before.
Some of the traditions associated with the Solstice are the burning of the Yule log (made of oak) along with prayers to release the old and welcome the new. In Scandinavia, families place all their shoes together as a way to ensure living in harmony throughout the year. Bells are traditionally rung at the moment of the Solstice, or at dawn on Solstice morning. Candle lighting and fires are ways of symbolically honoring the sun. Homes are festooned with holly, ivy and evergreen. The prickly holly, placed near doors and windows, was thought to ward off evil spirits, while the ivy and evergreen affirmed the new growth to come. Giving gifts, singing, and feasting were common to many traditions.
By celebrating the Solstice, we align ourselves with the cycles of nature and resonate with the traditions of our ancestors for thousands of years back. We need not be Christian, Jewish, or Pagan to take this time to release the old season and celebrate the promise of sunnier days to come, the awareness that abundance will return.
Our gratitude and heartfelt appreciation, expressed as eloquently as we know how, helps us to re-member the forgotten, and therefore dismembered Earth.
What do you love about the light?
Light reflecting off swiftly flowing water
Luminous clouds hinting at what they hide
Pink and red splashed on the dawn sky
A shaft of sunlight with tiny insects dancing in it
Sparkling wet sand on the beach
Rainbow at the waterfall’s edge
Radiance reflected back on your face.
Wishing you a joyous Solstice!
Cathy Holt
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