The winter solstice, also known as the hibernal solstice, takes place when either pole of the Earth reaches its maximum tilt away from the Sun. This occurs twice a year, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). Let's find out more fascinating facts about this day!!
1. What is The Date of Winter Solstice?
The winter solstice happens during the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere. This is the December solstice (usually the 21st or 22nd of December) in the Northern Hemisphere, and the June solstice in the Southern Hemisphere (usually the 20th or 21st of June). The date signals the 24-hour period with the fewest daylight hours and the longest night hours of the year in the northern hemisphere. That is why it is referred to as the shortest day or the longest night of the year.
2. History of Winter Solstice
Even during Neolithic times, the solstice may have been a special time in the annual cycle for some cultures. Astronomical occasions were frequently used to direct activities such as animal mating, crop sowing, and the monitoring of winter food reserves. This is the source of many cultural mythologies and traditions.
Roman Holidays: Several celebrations were held by the ancient Romans around the winter solstice. Saturnalia, a week-long celebration in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture, was held in the days preceding the winter solstice.
Saturnalia was a hedonistic celebration during which food and drink were abundant and the normal Roman social order was turned upside down. Enslaved people were granted temporary freedom and treated as equals for one month. Businesses and schools were closed so that everyone could enjoy the holiday celebrations.
Around the winter solstice, Romans celebrated Juvenalia, a feast honoring Rome's children.
Furthermore, members of the upper classes frequently celebrated Mithra's birthday on December 25. Mithra was an ancient Persian light god. Mithra, the infant god, was said to have been born of a rock. Mithra's birthday was considered the most sacred day of the year by some Romans. Mithra merged with Sol Invictus, the god of the "unconquered sun," in the later Roman Empire.
Some theorists believe the early Roman Catholic Church chose the same date for Christmas to replace pagan rituals, but many Christian scholars disagree.
3. Activities in Winter Solstice
3.1. Decorate A Winter Solstice Yule Tree
Celebrate the winter solstice by decorating an indoor or outdoor Christmas tree. Solstice trees were traditionally decorated with candles, known as yule tree lights, and ornaments representing the sun, moon, and stars. Does this sound familiar? An outdoor winter solstice tree or the decorated indoor evergreen counterpart known today as Christmas Trees, is the modern-day equivalent of a Yule tree. It's fun to decorate an outdoor winter solstice tree to feed the animals when their food supplies run low. Making a winter solstice tree outside is a fun family activity. Homemade bird feeders and popcorn garlands make excellent solstice tree decorations! All you have to do is decorate a living tree with animal food.
3.2. Visit Stonehenge
Celebrate inside the Avebury Stone Circle, as our forefathers have done for thousands of years. Some consider Stonehenge's sunset to be more important than its sunrise on the summer solstice because it coincides with a sight-line that points to the winter solstice sunset on December 21.
3.3. Make Winter Solstice Lanterns
A Winter Solstice Lantern represents how our light can continue to shine even as the sun's light and warmth fade. The light shines from our hearts, homes, and the fellowship of friends, family, and community, just as it does from the Yule Lantern. Candles and Yule Lanterns have traditionally been used to represent light on the darkest night of the year.
3.4 Host Or Attend An Advent Spiral Walk
A winter solstice, or advent spiral walk, is a beautiful way to honor the light and is a popular feature at many winter solstice festivals around the world. In 2021, host or attend an advent spiral! It is a meditative ritual in which the sun's light is honored as a reflection of the light that burns brightly within each of us, even on the darkest days of the year.
3.5. Countdown To The Solstice
Because many winter advent spiral festivals did not take place in 2020, we devised a new way to celebrate the rebirth of the light. With this stone advent spiral, you can count down to the winter solstice. This is an easy way to honor this sacred tradition in your home or classroom!
3.6. Craft Orange Pomanders For Yule
The orange is a symbol of the sun in many earth-based solstice traditions, so making an orange pomander is a sweet and fragrant way to celebrate the return of the sun. On the solstice, orange pomanders are traditionally given as gifts to represent nature and the return of light, love, and prosperity—and a sweet and happy life. To celebrate the solstice, make orange pomanders to give as gifts and to decorate and freshen the home for the holidays.
3.7 Set up a Yule Altar
Set up a yule or winter solstice altar somewhere in your home. A shelf, small table, dresser top, or nature table are all good options. Decorate your Yule altar with beeswax candles, holly, evergreen, and seasonal crafts.
4. Quotes About Winter Solstice
- "Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for a home." — Edith Sitwell
- "Even the strongest blizzards start with a single snowflake." — Sara Raasch
- "If winter comes, can spring be far behind?" — Percy Bysshe Shelley
- "The first fall of snow is not only an event, it is a magical event. You go to bed in one kind of a world and wake up in another quite different, and if this is not enchantment then where is it to be found?" — J.B. Priestley
- "Winter is not a season, it's an occupation." — Sinclair Lewis
- "Even in winter an isolated patch of snow has a special quality." — Andy Goldsworthy
- "What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness." — John Steinbeck
- "We build statues out of snow, and weep to see them melt." — Walter Scott
- "Let us love winter, for it is the spring of genius." — Pietro Aretino
- "The pine stays green in winter... wisdom in hardship." — Norman Douglas
- "My old grandmother always used to say, 'Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever." — George R.R. Martin
- "While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best." — Tom Allen
