The Winter Solstice
The light pauses and so should we
Hello, I’m Rachel. I write about nature and creativity to encourage connection and wellbeing. This is one of my posts on how humans mark seasonal changes around the world. To read about other points in the year go to my homepage and click on the marking the seasons tab. To find out more about this publication go to this post.
Here we are. In the Northern Hemisphere we have reached the shortest day. In the South East of England, the earliest sunset was on 12th December (a fact I only learnt this week from Lev Parikian’s post), but today marks the shortest day and the longest night. This year at 921GMT on 21st December the North Pole reaches its maximum distance away from the sun. The opposite is happening in the Southern Hemisphere thus its longest day.
Solstice comes from the Latin, solstitium - sol meaning sun and sistere standstill. The sun is at a standstill. This is because there isn’t any perceivable difference in day length until around the 25th, thus these few days are the winter pause. A nudge from nature that we too can pause.
While this is an astronomical event, along with the Summer Solstice and the equinoxes, humans have long marked this with festivals incorporating it into their religions. Who wouldn’t want to mark the return of the light!?
From the Neolithic people who orientated the giant stones of Stonehenge (UK) and the Newgrange Burial Chamber (Eire) towards the Winter Solstice sunrise and sunset, to the ancient Persian festival of Yalda which celebrates the triumph of light and goodness over darkness. It is still celebrated today in Iran and neighbouring countries with lights, foods such as pomegranates (a winter favourite for me too) and the reciting of poetry which sounds lovely. Before modern calendars were adopted, the Solstice was on 25th December, so the Roman festival celebrating the birthday of Sol Invictus and the Anglo-Saxons midwinter celebrations for the solstice and Christmas were celebrated on the 25th December. In Celtic traditions, the winter solstice was very important and has various names in each celtic language but common traditions such as the lighting of candles and sharing of feasts. The modern Welsh Druid festival of Alban Arthan links these ancient rituals with the myth of King Arthur. The return of the sun has been celebrated since pre-Christian times in Albanian, particularly with the lighting of ritual fires to encourage the light to return. I rather like the custom in Japan of soaking in a warm bath infused with yuzu fruits on the Solstice to ward off colds. Think I’ll try this after my Solstice sunrise sea swim.
Yule was the Ancient Nordic/Germanic traditional midwinter festival celebrated over 12 days originally later in January and only brought in line with Christmas as Christianity spread North. It is only in some modern Wiccan traditions that is it marked on the solstice. It is likely that all these festivals and the changes in calendar led to the fixing of Christmas (by the Roman Emperor Constantine in the 4th Century for Western Christians) on the 25th December. Saint Lucy’s Day, while commentating a Catholic Saint, is thought of as a festival of light and widely celebrated in Scandinavian countries. It is now on 13th December but was originally on the winter solstice before the adoption of the current calendar. In her book, Wintering, Katherine May talks about her visit to the Saint Lucia service at the London Swedish Church which I would love to do one year. You can also watch Jonna Jinton singing her version of the traditional Santa Lucia song.
And then to come right up to date and to my home city, Brighton marks the longest night with the Burning of the Clocks parade. Now in its thirtieth year, willow and paper lanterns representing the passing of time are made by local residents. They parade through the city culminating in a bonfire on the beach. It is a beautiful event and while it is a celebration of light it also started as a response to the commercialisation of Christmas - a message to consider.
Last year, I wrote this for the Solstice. About how I was feeling and how I was marking the day.
It was a hard, strange time that led to the unexpected passing of my Father in early January. But, despite what was happening, I still managed to find things to help me feel better in the moment. This year, I’m full of mixed emotions as I mentioned in previous posts. But I want to mark this time, to honour the light returning, in more ways than just astronomical alignments. Hopefully I will have got up for the sunrise (I’m writing this a couple of days before) and I hope to go to the Burning of the Clocks. I will light candles and the Yuzu bath sounds lovely.
The sub-title of this piece refers to us taking a pause. And I hope you can. It might be a pause from usual day to day life to dress up and have fun, or it might be a pause to rest, renew and cosy up. It’s all too easy to get swept away by this time and end up exhausted and ill. I hope you can put aside what others want and do something for yourself. Winter is not a time to be rushing. The animals know this, either tucked up in cosy nests or having away to warmer climes. We are not designed to keep going at the same rate all year either. We don’t have to have a busy holiday time if we don’t want to. We all need rest.
My wish for you, is that you can find some time this weekend, to sit with a hot drink, to cosy up, to watch a candle or fire flicker, to cuddle a loved one. To pause.
And if you are struggling with winter, with the darkness, remember that the light is now returning.
I’ll just leave you with this short voice note from nature, a reading of Susan Cooper’s poem - The Shortest Day. It is marketed for Children and presented in a beatifully illustrated book by Carson Ellis, but apparently it was written to be recited and certainly not ‘just’ for children.
And yes, before anyone comments, Bridget Dog had found something disgusting to eat, I only realised watching it back! She’s fine!
And so, until next time.
To find out more science facts about the Solstice, go to Royal Musuems Greenwich website or the Wikipedia page
Wishing you all the best for the season of midwinter and beyond, Rachel!
I imagine Bridget thought whatever she was eating was lovely!