Happy winter solstice!
Things should soon look brighter.
This year, here in the northern hemisphere, in the unlikely event of the sun shining, I could see the sun stand still at 15:03 on 21 December - if I was in the right place at the right time. That moment will be the true winter solstice (from the Latin for sun stand still). It’s the time of year when our wobbly earth ends its tilt in one direction and starts tilting back in the opposite direction for the summer solstice. We humans tend to celebrate for the whole day, which can be December 21 or 22. It’s a good excuse for a feast around a fire, along with the fact that it is a good time to slaughter those animals that you don’t intend to feed throughout the winter.
It’s a day that is important in many cultures and religions. Here in the UK, the stones at Stonehenge align with sunset on the winter solstice and there were great feasts. These days, people celebrate at Stonehenge at sunrise. If you are in the area you can go, but there are no parking places left so you’ll have to catch a bus from Salisbury. If you can’t go, then you can watch online here. There are other archaeological sites that track the seasons around the world. Is there one near you?
Some call the winter solstice midwinter, though in my experience the middle of winter is often weeks later.
You don’t have to be religious to celebrate the fact that the days will get longer for the next 6 months, and that summer will surely come (or almost surely). And farmers have long used the occasion to plan sowing crops and putting livestock to mate.
But just as the Earth tilts one way or another, so does our political world. And just as we celebrate the darkest day, illogical as that sounds, then we can celebrate not that there are signs of spring, but that there are signs that the tilt to the right is coming to an end, as the cracks begin to show in the Republican Party.
It may get worse for a little while longer, just as many of us have yet to see the worst of winter, but it will surely get better.
So, happy winter solstice!
It's Cosmic 💫 just like you ✨ Thank you for posting,Sue, Happy Holidays 🎄 to you and your readers tonight and will reStack ASAP 🙏
Lovely, Sue- my middle name is Salisbury, and my mother’s people were Welsh from Anglesey. My brother, Clifford, also given proper Anglo name not shorten American
Burt, used to call me Salisbutt, so I never liked it much until I went there as a university student at the Sorbonne. I thought I knew all about the Stonehedge astrometers so reading this taught me how they really lived and made my day/night high up here 47N Seattle where it darkened today just after 3’ish. All the hummingbirds did get their pecking order turn last sip of the day at the feeders just as the sun set somewhere beyond the rain clouds. I took a sip of my tea and surprised myself thinking; ‘Good; going to be better the next 6 months and better yet for my birthday come June.’ I don’t know where the thought flew in from but I like that it mirrors yours. Happy holy days; good riddance ‘25.