Happy Solstice
Winter Solstice may be the shortest day of the year in terms of hours of daylight, but it's also the day that the sun starts making it's comeback, and I find that to be a very encouraging thought.
It's no accident that pretty much every major culture the world over celebrates a major holiday within a few days of this date. Examples include the Germanic festival of Yule, the ancient Persian holiday of Yalda, the Chinese festival of Dōng Zhì, and the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia, which happened to fall on December 25 in the Julian Calendar and was later supplanted by the celebration of Christmas. And perhaps most important of all is Life Day, celebrated by Wookies on the planet Kashyyyk. Who will ever forget Chewbacca's bravery in fighting the Imperial "War on Life Day" in the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special? I know I won't.
Perhaps because I'm half Irish, I've always looked forward to this day. Hundreds of years before Stonehenge was completed, a thousand years before the Egyptians built the pyramids, the ancient people of Irel
and build Brú na Bóinne at Newgrange. That's in on the left. This megalithic passage tomb contains a central chamber that is lit by the sun only one time a year. For a few days surrounding the Winter Solstice, for barely fifteen minutes a day, the light of the sun shines through a roof box into the chamber, marking the point in the year when the days will stop getting shorter and the sun will start to return. Good stuff, huh? Or am I just a hopeless dweeb?
Anyway, enough lecturing. I hope everyone has a good day today, and if the darkness and gloom of the shortest day of the year start to get to you, just remember that from today until the Summer Solstice the minutes and hours of daylight are becoming imperceptibly but inexorably longer. Cheer up; Spring is closer than you think.
It's no accident that pretty much every major culture the world over celebrates a major holiday within a few days of this date. Examples include the Germanic festival of Yule, the ancient Persian holiday of Yalda, the Chinese festival of Dōng Zhì, and the ancient Roman holiday of Saturnalia, which happened to fall on December 25 in the Julian Calendar and was later supplanted by the celebration of Christmas. And perhaps most important of all is Life Day, celebrated by Wookies on the planet Kashyyyk. Who will ever forget Chewbacca's bravery in fighting the Imperial "War on Life Day" in the 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special? I know I won't.
Perhaps because I'm half Irish, I've always looked forward to this day. Hundreds of years before Stonehenge was completed, a thousand years before the Egyptians built the pyramids, the ancient people of Irel
and build Brú na Bóinne at Newgrange. That's in on the left. This megalithic passage tomb contains a central chamber that is lit by the sun only one time a year. For a few days surrounding the Winter Solstice, for barely fifteen minutes a day, the light of the sun shines through a roof box into the chamber, marking the point in the year when the days will stop getting shorter and the sun will start to return. Good stuff, huh? Or am I just a hopeless dweeb?Anyway, enough lecturing. I hope everyone has a good day today, and if the darkness and gloom of the shortest day of the year start to get to you, just remember that from today until the Summer Solstice the minutes and hours of daylight are becoming imperceptibly but inexorably longer. Cheer up; Spring is closer than you think.
posted by Yukon Sully | 7:49 AM
3 Comments:
it's the start of winter, but it feels like winter has been going on for a month and a half here in boston, a.k.a. "home of the eternal winter".
when i was in ireland we saw a couple rock circles that look like smaller versions of stonehenge. these circles are always composed of an odd number of stones with an opening at one end. the stones get larger and taller the farther away from the opening they get. the largest stone is opposite the opening. supposedly, the light comes straight through the opening of the circle during the winter solstice.
the amazing part is that the people that built these circles often had to drag the stones for miles and miles in order to create the circles. i guess people had to do something to keep themselves busy before tivo was invented. nothin' like a good old fashioned stone drag!!
Leave it to Daniel to come up with some fun fact about his trip to Ireland.
I just love it in the summer when it stays light late into the evening. Seems like you can just get so much more done or at least be outside longer. Someone on NPR today was talking about how many transplants to Alaska have a terrible time with the long days of darkness at this time of year. That is why so many of them turn to drugs or alcohol.
Cabin fever is prevelant for sure.
Now being tropical AND dark, we really don't know what to think anymore.
Sure could use some snow...
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