December Solstice

 

 

 

 

Solstice greetings to all. Love and light to you.  You may not celebrate the winter solstice, but you do.  The lights, the evergreens, the gifts and gatherings of the season.  These are older than the holidays we  celebrate, now. 

And tomorrow, December 21, the angle of the sun will appear to align along the Tropic of Capricorn. Astronomical summer begins in Antarctica and the Southern Hemisphere.  

Here, in the Northern Hemisphere, astronomical winter begins. The Old Celtic calendar called the solstice midwinter. As you can see, the dark time of the year here is between what we call Halloween and Ground Hog Day.  

 

Yes, the solstice marks the longest night. Some say the stones at Stonehenge are aligned in such a way that the sunset on the December solstice aligns with the most prominent stone. This is the death of the old year. Sunrise on the following  day marks the start of new beginnings.  

 

Even by our calendars today, January1 already has a few more minutes of daylight. So the wheel of the year turns again, time and again, beginning again. as it has long before you and me.