Happy Winter Solstice
Other bloggers would use an artsy-fartsy fey kind of glimmering sunray image for this post. But not me.
The solstices, both of them, are two of my favorite holidays. Not holidays in the sense that I observe social rituals involving other people, but holidays in the sense that I mark them, and feel them, each year. They are natural holidays, natural punctuation points in the rhythm of life on earth.
At the summer solstice the girls and I (the girls being my dogs) used to go out to a small glade where lots of fireflies lived, and we would sit in the wet grass as the sun went down and watch the fireflies wink in and out in the twilight. I don’t do that any more, because I no longer live in a place with fireflies. I miss them.
In winter the darkness smothers me like a blanket as the days grow shorter and shorter. Each day the sun peels away and leaves me alone in the void, unable to breathe. More light! said Goethe. And then the solstice comes, and after that the light, and the oxygen, return. Every year I breathe relief as the days grow longer; every year I say to myself — spontaneously, joyously, in the same way I’ve been saying it since I was a child, and as countless humans have said it for a hundred thousand years — sun’s coming back!
The solstice occurred at 1:08 AM Eastern Standard Time today. Sun’s coming back.
9 Responses to “Happy Winter Solstice”
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me, me, me says:
No. The solstice happened before midnight. End of discussion.
But you’re supposed to be outlooking for the Aurora Borealis which are usually best in November/December cold nights, and also to be awake or out for walkies when you can see the stars, and the moon so bright (last night), and smell the frozen pines and the snow that crunches under your feet.
Last night, as I did all that, someone set off a private (not civic) fireworks display down in the valley. I tell you Vi. I felt like a goddess.
December 22nd, 2007 at 8:55 pm EST -
The Ghost of Violet says:
No. The solstice happened before midnight. End of discussion.
Typical time zone privilege.
By the way, I do love winter. Love it, love it love it. I just wish there were more light.
Even so, some time in my life I want to spend the winter above the Arctic Circle. I want to experience the winter darkness. I also want to spend a summer there for the opposite effect.
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me, me, me says:
More light for Vi. They are as spectacular here but this just happens to be my favorite picture. Everything here is true; the truck, which everyone drives, the tiny stunted trees, more than 100 years old, the hard snow because there isn’t much snowfall but what there is, stays and freezes hard. And that snow? It reflects light. Sparkles, flashes. The lights yes they look like this and more, red, violet and plum are very common. And they move and flicker and dance across the ski. When it’s this cold and isolated you can hear the rustle. You’ll love it when you do that Vi, what you want to do.
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The Ghost of Violet says:
Ooooooooooohhhh! That is amazing! Do you really get to see that where you live? I must admit, I always find it hard to really believe those pictures, even though intellectually I know it’s true. What it must be like to look up and see that in the sky!
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me, me, me says:
That *is* how bright and vivid they look; just the colours are not always of the blue/green tones, although that’s the most common. And they are not always there. You can’t see them if it’s cloudy, or snowing. And sometimes, for weeks and months, they just aren’t brilliant where you are. You can also see the Milky Way which is pretty incredible too, but doesn’t get the flashy press the Aurora does. You can learn about them here. Tonight is mildly good, if it’s clear. It’s not clear here.
It’s really hard to see them as a tourist. Just like bears or whatever you came to see. They heard you were coming…
I don’t know what your profession is, but lots of northern universities and colleges have teacherships, or whatever they’re called.
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kristi says:
Axial tilt is the reason for the season. Happy solstice!
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Ann Bartow says:
I couldn’t get an egg to stand on end. Anyone else try? Or do y’all have lives?
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therealUK says:
I hate the dark, greyness of winter we get so much of here (N.England). Blue sky and snow is a rarity, just grey, fog, rain, grey, fog, rain, grey, grey, bleeeah.
I like the idea of solstice (and equinox) though, and the quirk that the sunrise does not actually get earlier until into January even though the overall daylength increases.
and
They are natural holidays, natural punctuation points in the rhythm of life on earth.
Yes, it would be nice if people celebrated these things rather than the crap that capitalism and big religions brought us
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ruth says:
Meanwhile, way (way) down South, we’re glad that the summer solstice has arrived, and that we have only a couple more months of weather like today – blinding sun, hot winds, 40.5C. Here’s to the movement of the spheres (and the axial tilt), and the longed-for autumn.
