Crones, maidens and the congregation lit candles to celebrate the Solstice.

The term “solstice” comes from the Latin words “sol” and “stitium” that translate to mean “sun-stoppage”. It is referring to when the view of the sun, as it is seen perpendicular to the horizon, stops and changes direction. At the summer solstice, it is at its highest, and at the winter solstice, it is at its lowest point before stopping to move back towards the center, which is seen at the two equinoxes in the spring and fall.

The winter solstice is referred to by other names as well. In China, it is called the “Extreme Winter”. In England, it is often referred to as “Midwinter” or “The Shortest Day”, or even “The Longest Night”. In many cultures, the solstices and equinoxes mark the middle of each season.  But because the temperatures usually get more extreme after the solstices, many cultures, such as ours, use the solstice to mark the beginning of the winter and summer seasons.

Celebrating the solstices has been important since ancient times. The winter solstice was especially important because it marked the beginning of the “famine months” which were from January through April. People were never sure of their own survival through this time. They faced bitter cold, and a scarcity of food and water. Plants no longer grew, and they often slaughtered their livestock so as not to have to feed them during the winter. This was often the only time they ate fresh meat. So, they celebrated. They ate their meat, and sang and feasted and visited as their last hurrah before buckling down for the winter. And people prayed for the return of the sun.

About 5000 years ago, in Ireland, a great monument was built, which is called “Newgrange”. Its design, which is a kidney-shaped megalithic mound, has a special hole just above the entrance. This hole, called a “roofbox”, allows for the “ritualistic capturing of the sun”. On the day of the winter solstice, and only on the winter solstice, the sunlight starts flooding in exactly at sunrise. Well, it was exactly at sunrise 5000 years ago. It is now 4 minutes after sunrise, due to minute changes in the earth’s axis over the millennia. Once the sun enters the chamber, it proceeds to flood the chamber floor for exactly 17 minutes before it starts to recede again.

Another well-known monument was built about 1000 years later in England, and was also thought to be used to ritualize the solar movement. Stonehenge was built so that when you entered the site, you were facing the setting sun on the midwinter solstice, while the avenue that lead you in, is facing the rising sun of the midsummer solstice. It is thought that it was a place people went in the winter to pray for the return of the sun. And it worked, since the days did start getting longer.

As many of us may look with dread to the cold, dark winter, where life lies dormant around us, we could probably do with a little more solstice celebrations. Most solstice celebrations are a welcoming of the return of the sun. In China, the “Extreme Winter” is one of the more important festivals. They see that the days will be getting longer, which means there will be more positive energy. In Western Europe,the Wiccans and Druids celebrate “Yule”, which is when the Goddess gives birth again to the Sun God.

In some Wiccan traditions, they tell the story of the Holly King and the Oak King, which are two sides of the same Horned God, and one could not exist without the other. The story goes, that the Holly King and the Oak King battle every six months for dominance and for the Goddess’s affections. At the winter solstice, there is a great battle, and the Oak King defeats the Holly King, and, incidentally, mates with the Goddess, dies and is reborn in the spring. At the summer solstice, there is another great battle, where the Holly King is victorious, also mates with the Goddess, dies, and is resurrected in the fall.

Yule, the festival at winter solstice, is a celebration of the completion of the cycle of life, of death and rebirth.  It is a time to look to set new goals, and to leave old regrets. Some do ritualistic cleaning of their homes. This “spring cleaning”, which, in my opinion, should be renamed “Yule Cleaning”, helps to rid the clutter, the dust and the dirt, and be ready to start the new year fresh and clean. They recommend paying special attention to cleaning your windows, so that you can see more clearly through them, literally and symbolically.

But, if you are like most everyone I know, there is no time for even thinking about Yule Cleaning at a time like this! My cleaning is a more of a “hurry and tidy up before company comes over” kind of cleaning! This is because we are busy with our own yuletide festivities.

Our Yuletide celebration is better known as Christmas. While the traditional Christmas story tells us that Jesus was born on Christmas day, there is quite a bit of speculation that he was actually born in September, although March and April have been also been given as possible other times. In the 4^th century AD, Pope Julius I decreed that Christmas should coincide with the Roman Winter Solstice, which fell on December 25. The discrepancy in dates has to do with the how the calendars dealt with the nearly ¼ extra day in the solar year. The solstice was later changed to fall anywhere from December 20^th to the 22^nd. But the date of Christmas stayed the same. Christmas was changed to coincide with the solstice, because despite the spread of Christianity, people did not stop celebrating the rebirth of the sun god on the winter solstice. The Church did not like that people continued to celebrate the birth of their pagan god, so they overlapped their celebration of Jesus with the pagan tradition, and eventually morphed the festivities to celebrate the “light” that Jesus brings, and later, set the nativity story at that time.

But many ancient yuletide traditions continue on in our own Christmas celebrations. The ancient pagans brought trees into their houses on the solstice, evergreen trees, to symbolize the return of life as winter descends. They decorated their homes with evergreens, especially holly and mistletoe, which represented the birth of the sun god. People feasted and gave presents. They burned a yule log, which was usually an oak log, to represent the Oak King, and to represent the light overcoming the darkness. The log was to be from their own land, or given as a gift- it was never to be bought. They brought it in their house and decorated it with evergreens and doused it in cider or ale and put it in the fireplace to burn on the winter solstice. They started the fire with a log from the previous year as a symbol of “out with the old, and in with the new”. Sometimes the logs had holes drilled into them to hold 3 candles. This could be used by people who don’t have chimneys. The colors were sometimes white, red, and black, to honor the Great Goddess. Sometimes they were green, gold, and black, to honor the Sun God. And other times, they were colors we relate well to, and that is red, green, and white, which honored the season.

We have heard various stories of the origins of our favorite Christmas-time hero, Santa. It is thought that he was originally St. Nicholas, from what is now Turkey, who was the Patron Saint of gift-giving. But one source I found, though I could not necessarily find other sources that corroborate this, posits that our dear friend Santa Claus may even have pagan roots. Notice these similarities: The Holly King wore red, and had a beard. He drove a solar chariot that could look like a sleigh. Santa has 8 reindeer, which represent the 8 Sabbats, or holidays, of the Pagan Wheel of the Year. The reindeer have antlers, which represent the Horned God. And, Santa lives in the North Pole, which is the Land of Shadows, which represents the dying solar year. Something to think about!

Hannukah, incidentally, is not considered a Yuletime celebration, although it often falls around the solstice, and is a festival of lights during the darkest time of the year. Yule is a celebration of the sun, while Hannukah follows the lunar calendar, and because of this, it can also fall up to a month before the winter solstice.

Whatever our personal traditions for the season are, I hope we can all keep in mind the concept of a rebirth. A starting fresh in the new year. The older we get, the more baggage we bring along, so may we all empty our baggage of whatever is no longer useful, and make room for the new opportunities that the new year may bring. Let us keep in mind that as winter sets in, and we face snow and ice and cold, we can look optimistically forward, because the sun is indeed returning to us, bringing us more and more light, and positive energy.