The Longest Night - celebrating the Solstice

[Gardenarian]

Hi pagans and other sun lovers!

The solstice falls on December 21 this year. It will start getting lighter soon - yay!
Is anyone else celebrating this event?

We have a flexible family tradition. It is important to start with very clean house (one of my favorite parts!) and scent the air inside with herbs and natural oils.

We try to go to a place where we can watch the sun set. This usually means climbing the mountain behind our town. (A lot of this stuff depends on the weather.)

We decorate an evergreen. We do have a small tree for inside the house, but I am also buying a baby redwood (we have a stand of pines that is dying off, and I am replacing them with redwoods.) We will decorate the little tree with natural ornaments (pinecones rolled in peanut butter and birdseed, orange slices.) This represents the continuation of life, and helping wild creatures through the winter.

We get a good sized log to burn (from one of our sickly pines) as our Yule log (I have a fire pit) to symbolize light returning.

We also hang holly, ivy, and mistletoe - all traditional pagan symbols.

We have a feast, with a traditional wassail (though I'm making a non-traditonal curry.)

Everyone sets intentions for the coming year, writes them down, and burns them in the fire.
Then we do some star gazing and walk the dogs in the night.

I try to save some sort of crafty thing to do for the evening - this year we are making pot holders as gifts for our neighbors. My daughter wants to watch "Lord of the Rings" which seems like a very un-pagan thing to do, but heck, I'm not a purist - and it is the longest night of the year :)

[peggy]

Well we aren't pagans, but we are atheist, so no ritual of any kind. But we DO welcome the shortest day, in that every day after will be longer! We have been known to toast the sun on this day though. Now here is a celebration that has meaning! For everyone!

[fidgiegirl]

I would like to establish a tradition around this, because the short days are difficult for me emotionally. I guess I need to get on that vitamin D sooner rather than later . . . thanks for the nice ideas! I hope more will be shared.

[Greg44]

I LOVE winter Solstice -- because I know that soon light will slowly begin to return. My brother's birthday always landed on about this date. Usually we were pretty ready for Christmas at this point -- so we would go out to pizza and look at the Christmas lights. Not too pagan!

I too am low on Vitamin D and look forward to getting it naturally!

Actually I would love to be achieving maximun Vitamin D levels on a beach in Mazatlan Mexico, but it just not going to happen this year!

[Lainey]

Yes, am celebrating with dinner with friends. Have celebrated most of the solstices for a number of years now, mostly by just getting together and hanging out. Really enjoyable, a nice way to mark the seasons.

[Rosemary]

Gardenarian, what a lovely evening of family traditions!
Our Unitarian church has an annual solstice program that I really enjoy. Part of the program involves letting something go from the previous year - we write it down and burn it in the fire - and then setting intentions for the coming year. We blow out the candle and have a brief meditation time, and then music as someone brings the light back into the room (another candle, to light the big candle).

[Simplemind]

It is our anniversary and we always look forward to a nice quiet evening in front of the fire. It is our 10th anniversary so this year I will be watching the sun go down in Maui. It is the best way to get vitamin D!

[redfox]

Lighting a candle, being reflective & grateful for life...

[Acorn]

Gardenarian, it sounds like you have a lovely evening planned. I love the solstice and the turning back towards the sun, but I also like the summer solstice too.

Simplemind, lucky you! Happy anniversary.

[Spartana]

I am sooooo opposite everyone else. I celebrate the solsitice because I love the winter and long dark nights. I also mourn the solstice because I know it'll mean the days are getting longer and sunnier, and that my beloved nights filled with stars and moon and frost and cold will soon be over. WAH!! BOO-HOO!! Of course I'm living in SoCal so everyday is a sunny day - even when you are living in the snow and the cold. I love the freezing cold star-filled nights and will miss them when they are gone.

[sunnyjoe]

Spartana, I felt much the way you do when I lived in Southern California. I always loved winter and felt that things felt modestly calmer during the cooler months. Living in the midwest (and much farther north) now though I really struggle through these months. I feel like I'm hanging by my fingernails on for the longer days. For the solstice I'm making plans to go out with friends and will also start looking up sunrise and sunset times on-line. I love the "data" on how the days are lengthening.

[Spartana]

Spartana, I felt much the way you do when I lived in Southern California. I always loved winter and felt that things felt modestly calmer during the cooler months. Living in the midwest (and much farther north) now though I really struggle through these months. I feel like I'm hanging by my fingernails on for the longer days. For the solstice I'm making plans to go out with friends and will also start looking up sunrise and sunset times on-line. I love the "data" on how the days are lengthening.

Oh I can understand that. I lived in Alaska (and New England) for a number of years and in the winter the sun barely rose over the horizon (at around 10 am or so) before sinking below around 3 pm. Often times the streetlights never even went off all day! But I still loved it during that time of year and would love to go back and spend a year there - but wouldn't chose to live there year after year after year :-)! Of course there are those Northern Lights to look forward to on the darkest, coldest nights of the year (can you say 30 below!). Spectacular!!

[Simplemind]

When we left Oregon on the 11th we had been having a streak of perfect winter weather. Cold but bright sunny days with no east wind. I was out walking the dog every day and raking leaves. I don't mind the cold as long as I get bright sun. Unfortunatly winter is usually gray gray gray and days of rain. By December I am on the ledge. I think when I grow up I'm going to be a snow bird.

[Kestrel]

We will be having a Solstice celebration at our church (UU) that evening. it's great -- lots of people come! I think I'll be smudging people as they come in.

[IshbelRobertson]

Whilst not in the least bit pagan, I remember celebrating the summer solstice at Stonehenge once, many years ago - when you could still approach the stones (not allowed nowadays, alas) We have a celebration in Edinburgh for Beltane, though - and it's great fun! http://beltane.org/

The cleaning of your house, ensuring that all quarrels are resolved and other ceremonies are still very much part of the Scottish hogmanay celebrations. You can obviously add in the Christianity, but the pagan rites prevail!

[dado potato]

Mama and I are bringing friends to table 12/17. Looks like antipasto, bruchetta, shrimp risotto, chicken cacciatore, beef crespelles, pasta w/ sausage & sweet peppers, chianti, tiamisu, coffee, schnaps

[HappyHiker]

Bring on the light!! I love the Winter Solstice as it means the light will now return and the days grow longer. Here's a story I wrote about this special time of the year:

Find it at http://vibrantvillage.com

Wishing you all warm thoughts, happy holidaze and a big cup of hot chocolate.

[herbgeek]

That was lovely and I forwarded the link about Beaufort to a friend of mine who grew up there (technically the Straits).

[HappyHiker]

Thanks, Herb, glad you liked the Solstice piece. We just met a couple who moved here from Cape Cod who said our Down East area (where Straits is located) reminds them a lot of Cape Cod. Down East North Carolina remains a place of tightly-knit communities, wild and gentle beauty and a sense of the way it was before most coastal areas became over-developed...Cape Lookout Natl. Seashore is one of our favorite places to get away from it all...

[Geila]

We've been celebrating the Winter Solstice in lieu of Christmas for a few years and we love it - the wholeness of it, for lack of a better word, and the ritual which is nature-centered. And we love the fact that it has nothing to do with gifts! Now if I can just figure out where I put my ritual pages...why must I be so disorganized?

Wishing everyone a beautiful evening tonight - oh, wait - is it today or tomorrow? I hope it's tomorrow so I can have more time to find my papers. :|(

[Lainey]

Isn't it officially in the early a.m. of Thurs 22nd?

[Tiam]

I am sooooo opposite everyone else. I celebrate the solsitice because I love the winter and long dark nights. I also mourn the solstice because I know it'll mean the days are getting longer and sunnier, and that my beloved nights filled with stars and moon and frost and cold will soon be over. WAH!! BOO-HOO!! Of course I'm living in SoCal so everyday is a sunny day - even when you are living in the snow and the cold. I love the freezing cold star-filled nights and will miss them when they are gone.

And how cold and frosty are your nights and how long do they last?

I used to live in SoCal too and felt the same way about 'weather' as I used to put it. But I've been here in Oregon for 20 years and I've learned to long for spring and warmth. I actually don't like hot sunshine, I like moody, cloudy days, but the endless freezing, gloom gets to me. As I age, it's harder to keep warm.

[Greg44]

Happy Winter Solstice! It has been a beautiful sunny day - a much welcome change from the low clouds and foggy weather we have been experiencing these past few weeks.

Looking forward to more daylight and sunshine!

[treehugger]

Just read and enjoyed this today:

The Shortest Day
By Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.

Kara

[dado potato]

Kara,

I certainly hope for peace... but ... Dere's a long way t' go.

Today I was out on da ice catchin bluegills. A bald eagle landed at da site of some fishing dat went on before me. Our national bird is a scavenger. Nottin wrong wid dat! I give Tanks for da bluegills, darlin golden beauties!

[Marianne]

I am Pagan, but sadly, I did nothing. I went to bed really early. zzzzzzzz But today is great! Longer days ahead.