The Winter Solstice, in the Northern Hemisphere, occurs when our North Pole reaches its maximum tilt away from the sun, then the sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky.
The winter solstice has been immensely important since prehistory. People were dependent on monitoring the progress of the seasons. Starvation was common during the first months of the winter, also known as "the famine months" and many cultures have marked this Solstice by festivals and a variety of rituals. In temperate climates, this midwinter festival was the last feast celebration before deep winter began. Livestock were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter, so it was almost the only time of year when a plentiful supply of fresh meat was available.
Anciently, the Romans, Anglo-Saxons, the Norse, the Persians, MANY other cultures, and the Christians observed the time of the Winter Solstice. Rituals, dances, pageants, and spiritual vigils are enacted in lands around the world to propitiate the sun's return and keep the great wheel of the seasons rolling.
Here are but a few ways from around the world the Winter Solstice is observed and stories surrounding it:
- Diwali in India celebrates the victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. It’s a beautiful opportunity to get together with friends and family and rejoice in the light of one another’s company, while preparing for a fruitful year ahead, a time to feel thankful for the past year, look ahead to the next.
- The Scandinavian Goddess, Beiwe was believed to travelled through the night sky in a structure made of reindeer bones with her daughter, Beiwe-Neia, to bring back the greenery on which the reindeer fed.
- In Finnish mythology, Louhi, the “witch goddess of the North,” is told to have kidnapped the Sun and Moon and held them captive inside a mountain, causing the darkness of winter.
- The Yupik peoples, indigenous to the Artic, tell the story of the Kogukhpak, subterranean monsters with bulbous bodies and frog-like legs who could only be killed by the sun. On the winter solstice, the Kogukhpak emerged to hunt. Mammoth carcasses that had been discovered were said to be the corpses of the ones who stayed out too long and died when the sun returned.
- In Greek Mythology, the Kallikantzaros were angry, hairy, gnome-like creatures who lived underground and tried to cut down the tree of life. Like the Kogukhpak, they could also be killed only by sunlight and emerged during the solstice to wreak havoc on homes and villages, but they were reputed to be rather dumb and unable to count past three, so villagers put out colanders to ward them off. The Kallikantzaros would end up trying to count the holes in the colanders until sunrise and then have to go back underground before they could cause any mischief.
- In Italian folklore, La Befana is a goddess who rides around the world on her broom during the solstice, leaving candies and gifts to well-behaved children. Placing a rag doll in her likeness by the front door or window entices her into the home.
- The Feast of Juul was a Pagan Scandinavian winter festival when Juul logs were burned and fires were lit to symbolize the heat and life-giving properties of the returning sun.
- The Festival of Chaomos was a Pakistani celebration in which a small number of Kalasha or Kalash Kafir people observed the ritual of baths as a part of a purification process. There was also singing and chanting, dancing, bonfires, festive eating and a torchlight procession.
- The Dongzhi Festival is a very important one for the Chinese and Eastern Asians. Origins of this festival relate to the Yin and Yang philosophy of balance and harmony in the cosmos. With the hours of daylight starting to increase, there is an increase in positive energy flowing in. Traditionally this festival is a time for family gatherings.
- And Saturnalia is an ancient Roman festival honoring Saturn, the god of agriculture and time. During this week of celebration, all work and business came to a halt. Schools and courts of law were closed, the army rested and no criminals were executed. Romans spent Saturnalia gambling, singing, playing music, feasting, socializing and giving gifts to one another. It was a time of role reversal where Roman masters feasted with slaves who were given the freedom to do and say what they liked. During this time homes were decorated with boughs of laurel and evergreen trees, lamps were kept burning to ward off the spirits of the darkness, and temples were decorated with evergreens symbolizing life’s continuity.
The point is that the Winter Solstice not only marks the time when light “starts growing back” to the world, a time when the seasons start to change from winter and into spring, but it also marks a time of new beginnings, and cleansing the soul of accumulated darkness compiled during the twelve months prior.
As we wind down our current year and begin look forward let’s remember to look back and remember the things that we are grateful for that occurred to us in 2023. And let’s look ahead to dream of where we wish to go, do, or be in 2024. And as the sun at the Winter Solstice stops sinking and begins to rise back to light and warm the earth, pause and remember the present and be thankful that light is present for us; especially during the longest night of the year.
It is said that the “modern Druids” offer a rhyming chant at the Solstice. Perhaps we might remember the 2023 Winter Solstice with: By Spirit, Love and peace tonight; we stand heart to heart and hand in hand; to celebrate, and remember, the Light.
