Four ways to celebrate the winter solstice this year

All hail the darkest night and the rebirth of the sun.In the Northern Hemisphere, the days are dimming, Yule is nigh, and the winter solstice, the proverbial long night of the soul, is at hand.

The exact date and time of the solstices vary from year to year, but in 2024, the winter solstice falls on December 21 at 4:19 AM EST.In technical terms, the winter solstice marks the beginning of winter and the point of the year when the sun reaches its lowest point in the sky, directly above the Tropic of Capricorn.Solstice is a marriage of the Latin words for “sun” and “to stand still,” and the winter solstice equates to the shortest day and longest night of the year.

Winter’s sunburned, popsicle-stained sister, the summer solstice, celebrated on or around June 21st, coincides with the longest day and shortest night of the year.Betwixt the two we observe the spring and autumn equinoxes wherein sunlight and night are evenly distributed.Celebrating the solstices and equinoxes is among the oldest traditions known to man, right up there with storytelling and burying the dead.

Since we first crawled out of the cave, the winter solstice has heralded a time to retreat back to it, to consider what is lost with the frost and what is promised by spring.The longest night offers a chance to reflect on the year that has passed and cast an eye and a lantern toward brighter days ahead.

During this time, we are called to imitate the sun and its stand still.You can think of the solstice as the celestial New Year, a time for introspection, cleansing, and planting purpose; just as the sun is reborn on the solstice, so too can we be.

An excerpt of the poem “Shortest Day” by Susan Cooper, distills the ancient echo and enduring sentiments of the solstice:So the Shortest Day came and the year diedAnd everywhere down the centuries of the snow‐white worldCame people singing, dancing,To drive the dark away.They lighted candles in the winter trees;They hung their homes with ev...

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Disclaimer: This story is auto-aggregated by a computer program and has not been created or edited by PaprClips.
Publisher: New York Post

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