Happy Solstice!

Depending on where you are in the world, today is either the Winter Solstice (shortest day) or the Summer Solstice (longest day). Now a funny thing happens at this time every year, I usually start telling anyone who will listen that the celebration of Christmas on Dec 25th is a hijacking of much older pagan traditions. This is usually done to wind people up, to make a point when someone says something like “we should get back to the original meaning of Christmas”, or just for a bit of fun. I actually love Christmas and always get excited when we get within a few days of the day itself.

But anyway, this year I thought I’d simply blog about the pagan origins of Christmas and hit a wider audience

Dec 21st is an important time in the northern hemisphere; having experienced the harsh realities of winter, with the sun decreasing in strength and sunlight hours decreasing, Dec 21st marks the point where daylight hours start to increase again and the hope of spring and summer to come. With our ancient ancestors surviving on food stored for the winter months, it is welcome light at the end of the dark tunnel of winter.

The theory goes that leaders of these ancient peoples were clever enough to recognise a pattern and cyclic nature to the seasonal changes, and were able to work out ways of identifying when the shortest day occurred. Grand rituals performed at the time of the mid-winter solstice were carried out, to encourage the return or rebirth of the sun.

Lo and behold, a few days later the daylight hours were increasing noticeably, and the ritual was deemed to have been a success. With winter being such a harsh time for people to endure, this would have been cause for great celebration leading to feasting and festivities.

Scan the ancient cultures of the world and you will find many festivals around the time of the Winter Solstice, many of which follow a common death-rebirth theme. Some examples are listed on the Winter Solstice Wikipedia Page also some good solstice and festival information on ReligiousTolerance.org

It may be coincidence, but consider the phrases “birth of a sun” and “birth of a son”. Food for thought at least?

Now don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas, I love hearing Christmas carols, I even get a warm fuzzy feeling when I see a good quality nativity display. But if you’re looking for the “real meaning” of Christmas I would suggest considering ALL the traditions associated with mid-winter, and realise it is a celebration of hope at many different levels. Starting with hope of a return to warmer weather and plentiful food supplies!

Anyway, all that aside I hope you have a truly meaningful, enjoyable and memorable festive season. For me that includes spending time with family, getting in touch with family, going to a boxing day football match when I have had enough of family and one critical component I refuse to compromise on; watching the musical version of “A Christmas Carol” with Albert Finney on Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas, Happy Saturnalia and Solstice Greetings to one and all!

p.s. you’ll notice that I didn’t even start on the whole issue of the southern hemisphere being in mid-summer, but maybe I’ll blog about that another time