Happy Winter Solstice!!

I thought I'd like to wish everybody a happy Winter Solstice.

I don't actually think it's meaningless drivel to do so. But wasn't sure what other category it fits into.

The days will be getting longer. Out here in the southeast of our province, long experience has shown that - though we can get socked-in and the sky can be dim for days on end - the gradual lengthening of the daylight hours lifts people's moods.

But aside from that, we always host a Solstice gathering at our place. Maybe you do that, too, at someone's home. About 47 people is the most we've every been able to accommodate in our house, since outdoor conditions seem to make the large majority of people want to be inside in the evening. Good food, good refreshment, good company, good singing, good music on the stereo. It works!!

Anyhow, the real "new year" starts about now... so have a good one yourselves & your families.

Traditionally a yule log was placed in the house and then replaced with a living tree on the 21st,  to signify rebirth. European Christians didn't want to give up the festival, so the meaning of it was altered to fit the new religion.


We have no idea when Jesus was born and we certainly know that the Romans never required anyone to return to their town of birth for a census.  Tax collection was a local affair.  The same guy did census reports. By year zero, there were Romans spread over the entire known world. It would have caused economic calamity to force a return. The frontier would have been left undefended.

Here we are again! Merry solstice y'all!!

Yes, the birth of Jesus is actually the birth of the Sun, the same is true for Easter, it was a celebration about the waking up of nature, thats why its all about eggs and rabits and stuff. Actually here behind any celebration connected with christianity there is a pagan celebration, the new religion just was integrated in the pagan culture. As an atheist I try to understand what my people were into before christianity, the celebrations of the past look more meaningful and make more sense at least for me personally.

Happy solstice to all

I've always found it odd that "Christians" say people who believe in any religion other than theirs are pagans.  
Pagans prayed to what ever deity was in charge of what they needed most at the time.
Yet Christians pray to God, Jesus, Mary, and utter other names at times. I fail to see the difference.
The creator for me is the creator of all things, earth is our mother, the sky is our father, brother's wind and fire, sister water. Everything and everyone is part of the great hoop of life.

Happy Winter Solstice everyone!

Have to head out to run a couple of errands and will pick up some libations and a white candle to celebrate the event. So glad I saw this as otherwise I would have forgot what day it was.

Bryant RedHawk wrote:.... earth is our mother, the sky is our father, brother's wind and fire, sister water. Everything and everyone is part of the great hoop of life.

It's this cosmology that drew me so much into the viewpoint of many indigenous belief systems as it values all.  There is this other thread right now on being childless and how one might envision best being able to leave a permie mark for future generations, even in cases where one will no have children of their own onto which to pass the legacy [ https://permies.com/t/98508/Succession-childless-childfree ].  Redhawk's remarks are a reminder that *all* entities and beings are kin....brother, sister, father, mother, grandfather, grandmother.  When you approach these other entities with the permie-inclined caring that deep down all of us would like to express towards our kin, then it doesn't matter in the end that many of us are 'childless' in the typical sense.  We are gifting our extended kin nonetheless (as they continue to gift us).....the trees and animals with our food forests or the microbes and atmosphere with our gardens and greenery....and hopefully as well future human generations with the wisdom and empathy to see these connections and more beyond our current vision.

Happy solstice to all!

Hi & happy Solstice.  Grreat to see so many people getting into the spirit and offering greetings.  Once again, we've been spending a good share of the last couple days making sure our land's access road and parking areas are free enough of snow, preparing our portion of tonight's food, and rearranging furniture to accommodate the crowd.  All the prep is well worth it.

One comment for Bryant...

Bryant RedHawk wrote:I've always found it odd that "Christians" say people who believe in any religion other than theirs are pagans.  
Pagans prayed to what ever deity was in charge of what they needed most at the time.
Yet Christians pray to God, Jesus, Mary, and utter other names at times. I fail to see the difference.
The creator for me is the creator of all things, earth is our mother, the sky is our father, brother's wind and fire, sister water. Everything and everyone is part of the great hoop of life.

From what I remember reading from history & cultural scholarship, the term "pagan" in the Roman Empire was older than Christianity.  Our commonly used term "pagan" comes from the old Roman word pagani and referred to the beliefs, customs, and spiritual practices of the rural people within the Empire.  When Christianity first got started, it was probably seen by the city people who adhered to standard Roman religion as more of a problem than the country folk's beliefs & customs.  (Just my guess on that.)

I would like to echo Winter Solstice greetings (as well as any other winter holiday greetings that may apply) to everyone.  What I love about the Winter Solstice is that it signals the return of the light and longer days.  That can only be good!          

Happy Winter Solstice!!

There seems to be a bit of misapprehension by some of the posters here about what the Winter Solstice is. What it is not is just a pagan, or any other spirituality's, ceremony or practice. It is a moment in celestial time when the northern hemisphere of Earth is tilted the farthest away from the Sun that it will ever be in the course of the year. What this means is that in the northern half of Earth, the days are shorter and the nights longer than any other day of the year. (Of course the southern half of Earth would be just the opposite with longest day and shortest night.)

The reason this day, Winter Solstice, has always been Celebrated as one of the most important days of the entire year (Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Fall Equinox being the other vitally important days) is that it marks Mid Winter and the return of Sun. Farmers and Hunter-Gatherers need to be able to fix time of season so they knew when to plant, when the fish would "run", when the animals go into or out of hibernation, when animals would mate and when give birth, when green plants would start to emerge, when they would die off, when the cold would return. The marking and Celebrating of these celestial events enabled us humans to plan for the future, and greatly enhanced our ability to simply survive. Simply put, without the ability to know what's next, we are much more likely to die.

So Happy Winter Solstice!! Today we mark Mid-Winter. Today we know the next 3 months of the turning of Moon will bring a time to rest and heal and prepare. Today we know that with each new day to come for the next half year, Sun will share more of its life giving Warmth and Light. Today we know, that in 3 Moons, Earth will turn green again. Today is a day of such importance to all Human People, and a day of such importance to People who want to live in co-operation with Earth and all the Other People's of Earth. Happy Winter Solstice indeed.

Happy Solstice!  It's my favourite day of the year because, even though we've got at least 3 months of winter ahead, the lengthening days really cheers me up.

Bright blessings to you all for a happy winter solstice and a wonderful New Year. xxx

Happy winter solstice to all! I hope everyone has a great day and is able to spend a little time outdoors today or watch the sunset.

Happy winter solstice to all!


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In honor of the Winter Solstice, Mother Nature gave us snow today. Wet, gloppy, mixed with rain snow, but the world turned white amazingly quickly. Heinrich goose stopped and started three times before venturing out into in, but our two "teenager" Muscovy ducks looked at me as if to say, "What happened to our world? What is this stuff?" and then proceeded to have a good day despite it.

So all of you, have a happy Winter Solstice! I'm baking Chai Spice short bread cookies so I send you some e-version (or if you're interested, I'll post the recipe!) Cheers!

We've got the same kind of snow here today, Jay... even though we're in a mountain valley hundreds of miles (or kilometres) east of the Pacific coast.

Glad this thread got bumped. We've continued to have the Solstice gatherings here that mentioned in the OP — though cant do it this year.  Friends here are mostly in their bubbles, hunkered down, socially distanced (yeah, like kilometres), and toughing it out through this peculiar time.

But I wish all reading this a happy Solstice & good year!

Some lovely permies whispered in my ear that, yes, they would like the recipe. The dough is in the fridge now, and I will shortly be cutting and baking them!

CHAI-SPICED TAHINI SHORTBREAD
1 ¼ cup  soft butter
2 ½ tsp  ground cardamom
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
2/3 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup tahini
½ tsp salt
2 2/3 all-purpose flour
Optional - ~ ½ cup sesame seed for garnish
Cream butter with spices on medium speed until well blended. Add both sugars and mix again on medium until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla, tahini and salt; beat again until well mixed and fluffy.  On low speed, stir in flour until combined.
Roll the dough into two round logs, about 2 inches in diameter and 12 inches long.  Wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 325 F. Lightly butter two cookie sheets.  Unwrap dough and slice ¼ inch thick. Roll cookies in toasted sesame seeds if desired. Place on cookie sheet allowing at least ¾ inch of space in between each cookie.
Cook 10 min. Cookies will still be soft. Let cool on sheet for ~10 min before lifting onto racks.

Here we are again! Happy solstice!

Happy  Winter Solstice to all of you. I hope you all have a wonderfully short day, and appreciate tonight's longest night will come to an end!

Happy Winter Solstice, I celebrated by powerwalking my two four legged kids through the park adjacent to my home.
The sun shined down upon us the whole time,  we saw coyote and turkey tracks, said hi to a lone woman walking and it was glorious, what a wonderful day to be alive !

6 facts about the winter solstice
Find out some of the more interesting facts about the winter solstice.

1. The magic moment
While many focus on the winter solstice as a day in the calendar, what we are actually talking about is a very specific moment which is over almost as soon as it has begun.

The solstice marks the point at which the Sun is exactly overhead the Tropic of Capricorn, which this year will happen on Saturday, 21 December at 09:21.

2. The Sun stands still
Like many other astronomical terms, the word solstice comes from Latin. Owing to the Sun appearing to 'standstill' in the sky when it reaches the Tropic of Capricorn, the word solstitium was used which in turn is composed of the words sol (meaning 'sun') and sistere (meaning to 'standstill').

3. Winter begins
As well as marking the shortest day of the year, the winter solstice marks the first day of winter in the astronomical calendar, whilst in the meteorological calendar, we are already three weeks into winter.

4. Nine hours darker
You're probably aware that the day of the winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year, but did you know that its almost nine hours shorter than the longest day of the year?

The summer solstice in June is just short of 16 hours and 38 minutes long, while on the day of the winter solstice the length of the day is a mere 7 hours and 50 minutes.

5. The earliest sunset
Logically you'd expect the earliest sunset to fall on the shortest day, but the earliest sunset actually occurs a few days earlier in the calendar and it's all to do with our clocks not quite mirroring the Earth's orbit.

True solar noon, the point at which the Sun reaches its highest point in the sky, occurs around 10 minutes earlier than when our clocks strike 1200, and it is this discrepancy that means the sunset also arrives a little later on the solstice.

6. Solstice and Christmas
Amongst the many festivals that centre around the solstices and equinoxes, the Scandinavian festival of Jul has some rituals that are probably more familiar than you think.

Perhaps more familiar to us as Yule, the 12-day festival centred around the solstice has given birth to many of our most familiar Christmas traditions including the Christmas tree, the Yule log and the Christmas wreath.

Happy Solstice!

Just in time we got our rockety mass heater ready and moved from the "okay-ish" house to the renovated-enough-to-move one, into the warmth, so cozy with candle light, music and togetherness of us three (my son lives with us now) + the furry bunch.

Looking forward to having more friends over in the coming years for this special day, with the longest night.

Nest, homestead and community - the elements, plants, animals and humans - these are the best gifts !

Happy new year everyone, the Light returns from tomorrow on!