Celebrating the Winter Solstice

[Jeff Wrangler]

I enjoy marking the time like that as well, Jeff.

I may not know all the holidays like Imbolc or Beltane, but I do always make note of the solstices and equinoxes.

Apparently there were two cycles of festivals.

This one is easy to understand:

Yule (winter solstice)
Ostara (spring equinox)
Litha (summer solstice)
Mabon (fall equinox)

The other is

Imbolc (Feb. 1)
Beltane (May 1)
Lughnasadh (Aug. 1)
Samhain (Nov. 1)

In each cycle the holidays are three months apart.

I'm guessing these festivals in the second cycle started the night before these dates, thus we have Samhain (Halloween) on Oct. 31, and the Wiccans and Neopagans I knew had their "fertility rites" April 30.

This article on the Wheel of the Year is very interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_the_Year#:~:text=Autumn%20Equinox%20(Mabon),-Main%20article%3A%20September&text=The%20holiday%20of%20the%20autumnal,neo%2Ddruids%20is%20Alban%20Elfed.

[Front-Ranger]

Thanks! This is a good refresher. Offline Chuck and I pruned a large number of ash and buckthorn saplings out of the cotoneaster bushes on Monday and we could make a smashing good bonfire out of them. But, probably not allowed in these suburbs. So, I'm going in search of my scented candles...I have a Krampus one somewhere that would be excellent for the Solstice.

[serious crayons]

Chrissi and I invented the holiday Longerdays, celebrated on Dec. 22. We both crave sunlight at this time of year. I don't know where Chrissi is in Germany, but in Berlin sunsets at the solstice are more than half an hour earlier and sunrises are almost a half an hour earlier than Minneapolis. Or, to put it more simply, Berlin has 7:39 hours of daylight and Minneapolis has 8:46.

Which is still not nearly enough light for me. I literally count the days until Longerdays -- last weekend I thought, welp, we're heading into the darkest two weeks of the year.

I bought a SAD lamp for about $20 and try to turn it on each morning but I don't know if it's doing any good.

I sure can see why this is the time of year to celebrate with a nice, brightly lit festival!


 

[serious crayons]

thus we have Samhain (Halloween) on Oct. 31.

Subject of my first published article, "Celebrate Halloween the way the Druids did!"

[CellarDweller]

Subject of my first published article, "Celebrate Halloween the way the Druids did!"

 

[serious crayons]

 

[Jeff Wrangler]

If I remember to do this. ...

I'd like to check the time of sundown tomorrow--the day of the winter solstice--and light a candle at that time.

I still have one unused beeswax candle left over from my SCA days. I will plan to use that. I will use a replica candle holder from the pottery at Jamestown, Virginia.

[tforster]

I'm so thankful that the solstice occurs in about 6 hours. We're finally bottoming out and the daylight periods will ever so slowly start getting longer, though it's not noticeable until late February. However, once I know it has passed, I start feeling just a little better each day. Happy winter solstice, y'all. Cheers from Alabama.

[Front-Ranger]

Well, hello tforster! Nice to see you around these parts! Where I am, the sunset will be at 4:39 pm or 16:39 for the Eurobrokies. I'll light a candle then...I'll use the same little one that I bought at the Isle of Lewis when I visited the standing stones there on the summer solstice in 2010.

[CellarDweller]

Hello tforster!  Good to see ya!!!