The Short Shadow of the Winter Solstice

I write a post for each of the solstices because I like to mark astronomical events in some way. It connects me to people of the past who paid much closer attention to the natural world at their feet and above their heads than we do today.

I have written before about the scientific explanation of what is happening and I try to find something new to say each year. This 2012 winter solstice on December 21 has attracted more attention because of the Mayan calendar connection and the attached media madness. I wrote about all that earlier, so here I am only interested in the solstice itself.

It took a long time in our collective history to determine how to mark our time both minute to minute and year to year. Just deciding on when the year begins was an issue. You could use the September or March equinox, or at the June or December solstice.

The ancients could observe solstices by marking the midday shadow of a gnomon, that part of a sundial that casts the shadow. Gnomon is an ancient Greek word meaning “indicator”, “one who discerns,” or “that which reveals.”  What it reveals on the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere is that it is at its longest. It is at its shortest shadow when we reach the summer solstice. They could also have observed the point of time when the sun rises or sets as far south as it does during the course of the year (winter in the northern hemisphere) or maximally north (summer in the northern hemisphere).

Depending on the Gregorian calendar, the December solstice occurs annually on a day between December 20 and December 23.

Most people know that our winter in the Northern Hemisphere is summer in the southern half of the Earth.  On this solstice, if you are north of the Arctic Polar Circle, you are in darkness. If you are below a latitude of 66.5 degrees south (that’s the Antarctic Polar Circle) you will receive 24 hours of daylight.

In Guatemala on this day, modern Mayan Indians honor the sun god they worshipped long before they became Christians with a dangerous ritual known as the polo voladore, or “flying pole dance”. Three men climb on top of a 50-foot pole. As one of them beats a drum and plays the flute, the other two men wind a rope attached to the pole around one foot and jump. If they land on their feet, it is believed that the sun god will be pleased and that the days will start getting longer.

The ancient Incas celebrated a special festival to honor the sun god at the time of the December solstice.

Many of the “Nature peoples” around the world including Wiccans and other Pagans often blend together ancient as well as contemporary approaches to seasonal festivals. Celebrations include the Solstices, Equinoxes, and even the mid-points between which are known as the Cross Quarters.

Celebrating the Winter Solstice with Words

The shortest day of the year and the longest night signals the solstice, the first day of winter (if it did not already seem like winter in your part of the hemisphere).

Humans like solstices. They are one of the oldest known holidays in human history. Anthropologists believe that solstice celebrations go back at least 30,000 years.

On December 21, 2010, there was a full moon that coincided with the Winter Solstice. I’m sure that would have interested the ancients.  In 2009, there was another astronomical coincidence when the Full Moon was on the last day of the year and was also the second Full Moon –  a Blue Moon.

Most of the attention on the upcoming Winter Solstice has been because of the Mayan Calendar, but today I am just interested in looking at how we have treated Full Moons and solstices in some literature.

At the most famous of stone circles – Stonehenge – those stones were carefully placed to receive the first rays of the midwinter sun in a special way. I don’t know if you mark the day in any way, but one easy ceremony might be to read something of the time.

As an undergraduate English major, I am “trained” to see winter (and almost everything!) as symbolic.  The often funny poet, Billy Collins, says that English majors are actually majoring in death. Certainly, winter in literature is often connected to sadness and death.

And we know that in northern climes, winter sends us indoors and if you combine that with that gray outside landscape, you start to understand the seasonal affective disorder (SAD) effect.

That is the time of William Carlos Williams’ “Approach of Winter.”

The half-stripped trees
struck by a wind together,
bending all,
the leaves flutter drily
and refuse to let go
or driven like hail
stream bitterly out to one side
and fall
where the salvias, hard carmine,—
like no leaf that ever was—
edge the bare garden.

As an antidote to that SADness, think about the fact that almost all solstice celebrations are just that – celebrations. They focus on hope since with the solstice day it is the start of the reversal of shortening days. It is as a time to celebrate the rebirth of the year.

Two poems in my moon and solstice collection are  “December Moon” from May Sarton‘s collection Coming into Eighty  and Mary Oliver‘s poem “Herons in Winter in the Frozen Marsh” (from Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays). Both poets are known for being very tuned in to nature.

I also like this particular stanza from “Toward the Winter Solstice” by Timothy Steele.

Some wonder if the star of Bethlehem
Occurred when Jupiter and Saturn crossed;
It’s comforting to look up from this roof
And feel that, while all changes, nothing’s lost,
To recollect that in antiquity
The winter solstice fell in Capricorn
And that, in the Orion Nebula,
From swirling gas, new stars are being born.

Here are a few more to read that have a range of reactions to the Winter Solstice.

“Again a Solstice” by Jennifer Chang
“Fairbanks Under the Solstice” by John Haines
You can also listen to Robert Graves’ “To Juan at the Winter Solstice”

Slipping Into the Winter Solstice

Paradelle slips into Winter this Thursday when the sun stands still. Well, not really, but the word solstice is from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still). The sun won’t stand still on December 21st, but the winter solstice occurs at the instant when the Sun’s position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer’s hemisphere.

The December solstice will occur at 05:30 ( 5:30am) Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on December 22, 2011. It is the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere due to the seasonal differences. The winter solstice always occurs sometime between December 21 and December 22 each year in the northern hemisphere (it depends on the shift of the calendar), and between June 20 and June 21 in the southern hemisphere.

It literally only lasts an instant, but most people mark the entire day on which it occurs as the solstice.

Solstices have significance is several ways. First, there is the seasonal significance of the winter solstice. Though many people see it as the start of winter and view it as sort of depressing (as compared to summer), in many cultural celebrations, it was seen as an optimistic sign. The gradually lengthening nights and shortening days actually will begin to reverse after this point. So, get happy!

This shortest day or longest night of the year is interpreted differently from culture to culture. There are many winter solstice observances around the world.

Though we can’t be sure, the solstice probably had significance even for people in neolithic times. Since all the seasonal astronomical events have an influence on the mating of animals and the appearance or disappearance of plants and resources in nature, solstices (which they probably did not mark accurately as a “day”) certainly would have affected their conservation of food reserves and then the sowing of crops.

Solstices are one of the oldest known holidays in human history. Anthropologists believe that solstice celebrations go back at least 30,000 years. Celebrations predate when humans were farming on a large scale, so this goes beyond harvest festivals.

The remains of sites such as Stonehenge in Britain and New Grange in Ireland show that the primary axes of both of these monuments are aligned to pinpoint the precise date of the solstice. New Grange points to the winter solstice sunrise and the winter solstice sunset is aligned at Stonehenge.

This was seen as the time when Virgin mothers give birth to sacred sons. That’s not just the birth of Jesus Christ, which is the best known and most celebrated, but Rhiannon to Pryderi, Isis to Horus and Demeter to Persephone. The birth of Horus was celebrated about December 23, shortly after the solstice, the time of Osiris’s final entombment. At this time of the year, Isis and Nephthys were said to have circled the shrine of Osiris seven times, symbolizing their mourning and search for his scattered body parts.

January to April were famine months, so a solstice festival before the tough times would include the slaughter of livestock. This may have once had ceremonial/sacrifice significance, but also had a practical point – because they would not have to be fed during the winter. Plus, wine and beer made during the year was fermented and ready for drinking at this time.

In Greek mythology, the gods and goddesses met on the winter and summer solstice. Those were probably some great parties.

Last year, we had both the Winter Solstice and a Full Moon occurring on the same day. In 2009, we had a Full Moon to end the year December 31 that was also the second full moon of the month and so it was a “Blue Moon.”

It is the shortest day of the year in that the length of time between sunrise and sunset is the shortest and the longest night.

Of course, if you believe that humans have any control over Time, then daylight saving time means that the first Sunday in April only has 23 hours, and the last Sunday in October has 25 hours. Of course, the heavens (if not the gods) laugh at this civilized hubris.

From the scientific side, as the Earth travels around the Sun, the north-south position of the Sun changes over the course of the year and that changing orientation of the Earth’s tilted axes with respect to the Sun. When we arrive at the points of maximum tilt (marked at the equator), we get the summer and winter solstice.

Winter Solstice, Full Moon

Stonehenge by John Nail

December 21 is the Winter Solstice for 2010. and it is also a Full Moon. This astronomical calendar coincidence is interesting, but not unique. I wrote a post last year at this time, because we had a full moon to end 2009 on December 31, and it was also the second full moon of the month and it was a “Blue Moon.”

The solstice that we mark in the northern hemisphere is the shortest day of the year and the longest night, and it officially marks the first day of winter. It will be the “shortest day” of the year in that the length of time between sunrise and sunset is the shortest.

Then again, if you accept human attempts to control time, daylight saving time means that the first Sunday in April only has 23 hours and the last Sunday in October has 25 hours – but that’s just civilized silliness.

Solstices are one of the oldest known holidays in human history. Anthropologists believe that solstice celebrations go back at least 30,000 years.  Though many people associate it with harvests and agrarian celebrations, that dating puts it even before humans were farming on a large scale.

You probably know that many of the most ancient stone structures made by human beings were designed to pinpoint the precise date of the solstice. The most famous example is the stone circle of Stonehenge which was placed to receive the first rays of the midwinter sun.

In the north, this can be a depressing time of year as you are more confined indoors and the outdoors look bare and dead. But the solstice gives hope with its reversal of shortening days and is more seen as a time to celebrate the rebirth of the year. Get out the evergreens, bright illumination, a big fire, some feasting, being with loved ones, and dancing and singing.

On the scientific side, we know that as the Earth travels around the Sun in its orbit, the north-south position of the Sun changes over the course of the year. That is because of the changing orientation of the Earth’s tilted rotation axes with respect to the Sun.

When we arrive at the points of maximum tilt (marked at the equator), we get the summer and winter solstice.

Correspondingly, the points of zero tilt are our vernal (spring) equinox and autumnal equinoxes.

The word solstice derives from Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still) since to the ancients the sun did seem to stand still.  In Greek mythology, the gods and goddesses had meetings on the winter and summer solstice.

In many cultural histories, this is the time when virgin mothers give birth to sacred sons: Rhiannon to Pryderi, Isis to Horus, Demeter to Persephone and Mary to Jesus.

The birth of Horus was celebrated around December 23, shortly after Winter Solstice which marked the time of Osiris’s final entombment.

Though we can’t be sure, the solstice may have had significance even for people in neolithic times. Since these astronomical events influence the mating of animals and the appearance of things in nature, it would have affected their conservation of food reserves and then the sowing of crops.

In the areas around Stonehenge in Britain and New Grange in Ireland,  January to April were famine months. The solstice was a celebration before the hard winter.  If cattle were slaughtered, it was not to celebrate, but because they often could not be fed through the winter. Wine and beer made during the year was fermented and ready for drinking at this time.

The winter solstice occurs sometime between December 21 and December 22 each year in the northern hemisphere. For our southern readers, winter will come between June 20 and June 21.

Winter Solstice 2009

December 21st is the Winter Solstice. The word solstice derives from Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still). The sun won’t stand still on December 21st, but the winter solstice occurs at the instant when the Sun’s position in the sky is at its greatest angular distance on the other side of the equatorial plane from the observer’s hemisphere.

It does literally only last an instant, but most of us mean the whole day on which it occurs. The day has significance is several ways. First, there is the seasonal significance of the winter solstice. The gradually lengthening nights and shortening days will begin to reverse after this point.

The winter solstice occurs sometime between December 21 and December 22 each year in the northern hemisphere (it depends on the shift of the calendar), and between June 20 and June 21 in the southern hemisphere.

This shortest day or longest night of the year is interpreted differently from culture to culture. There are many winter solstice observances around the world. The solstice may have meaning even in neolithic times. Astronomical events controlled the mating of animals, the sowing of crops and how people monitored their winter reserves between harvests.

The remains of sites such as Stonehenge in Britain and New Grange in Ireland show that the primary axes of both of these monuments are aligned on special a sight line. New Grange points to the winter solstice sunrise and the winter solstice sunset is aligned at Stonehenge.

January to April were famine months. The solstice might be a midwinter festival – a celebration before the hard winter begins. Cattle were slaughtered, not to celebrate, but because they would not have to be fed during the winter.  Fresh meat, wine and beer made during the year were fermented and ready for drinking at this time.

In Greek mythology, the gods and goddesses met on the winter and summer solstice.

Even though some of us in colder climes get depressed by the onset of winter, the reversal of shortening days and long nights can actually be viewed as a time to celebrate the rebirth of  the year.

Want to have a midwinter festival on Monday?  For that longest night of the year, you should break out the evergreens, bright illumination, a big fire, some feasting, being with loved ones, and dancing and singing. Doesn’t sound so ancient when you think about it.

Oh yeah – only 3 years until the solstice of 2012. You know what happens then, right?