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Ancient cultures all over the world developed various legends, traditions and customs to help them cope with their own particular circumstances.
For eons, the one constant the world over was the observance of the winter and summer solstices. It’s amazing to me that without clocks, computers or TV shows to count the minutes, they knew that in the cold months the days got shorter and shorter until on or about Dec. 21, which was and still is the shortest day of the year.
The word “solstice” means “sun stationary” because the sun rises and sets in the same place for a few days. I doubt that the ancients could calculate it down to the minute (it’s 7:04 A.M. this year) but they would know that this Sunday is the longest night of the year. And they would celebrate.
Some solstice celebrations were jolly and some were fearful, but all involved using fire to entice the sun to return instead of continuing to retreat day after day until it didn’t come up at all and everybody would die. Prematurely.
So every winter Solstice, I invoke my inner Druid, and celebrate by lighting the house with only candles (including dimmed candle bulbs in chandeliers) and fires in the fireplaces, invite family over and serve a really good meal (just in case it’s our last.)
We are so used to having electric lights that it is hard to imagine having only fire to see in the darkness, no matter how often we’ve heard about Abraham Lincoln studying by firelight. You know that old saying, “It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness?” Well, in complete darkness, one candle is pretty bright. It’s magical when a room is lit only by candles and a fireplace. People share more intimacies, speak more softly, and time seems to stand still.
The problem with this is that they don’t want to go home. Instead of casting them out into the darkness, I have to finally cast them out into the light ...
Light is life. ( An ivy plant that lives on my desk got shoved in a dark corner and forgotten for a week and is now brown at the ends of the stems where the new growth would have been.) Ancient people knew that their existence depended on the sun. The Winter Solstice reminds me to be grateful for the light.
Happy Winter!