Winter Solstice 2022

Winter Solstice 2022 Reflections on Shadows Cathy Crystal for Journey Home

The Winter Solstice is a quick moment in time and not a date. We tend to highlight the entire day on which the solstice occurs, however, it actually only lasts a moment! It is marked at 1:48 PM PST December 21, 2022 this year. The winter solstice doesn’t happen on the exact same date every year. It falls either on the 21st or the 22nd of December in the northern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere, it occurs on the 21st or 22nd of June. It occurs when the sun is above the Tropic of Capricorn, the southernmost point it ever reaches from our perspective making it the shortest day of the year.The Winter Solstice occurs twice. Once in the Northern Hemisphere. Once in the Southern Hemisphere. What is the First Day the Winter Solstice? Meteorologists say December 1 is the first official day of winter. But astronomers (and just about everyone else) agree that the winter solstice holidays mark the start of the coldest season. But there are two ways to look at it: meteorological and astronomical seasons. The latter is based on the position of the earth in relation to the sun. Meteorological seasons, on the other hand, are based on the annual temperature cycle. During the northern hemisphere’s winter solstice, people celebrate the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere and vice versa. Like most other ancient traditions, the northern and southern hemispheres don’t celebrate this event on the same day but rather align it with seasonal celebrations.Most pagan traditions originated from areas in the northern hemisphere where they first observed and coined the name for the event before appropriately timing it in the southern hemisphere. The Solstice and Yule with Pagan Scandinavian and Germanic people from Northern Europe whereas the December solstice celebrations with a 12-day long feast called Yule. Many modern Christmas traditions actually originated from Yule, including decorating the Christmas tree (formerly the Yule tree) and hanging up wreaths. The modern celebration of Christmas has a lot of connections to the winter solstice.Stonehedge marked this event as the symbolic death and rebirth of the Sun; where the gradual waning of daylight hours is reversed and the hours begins to grow again. Some ancient monuments such as Newgrange, Stonehenge, and Cahokia Woodhenge are aligned with the sunrise or sunset on the winter solstice. They kept a close eye on astronomical events and the amount of sunlight each season brought so they could plan their agricultural activities accordingly. Ancient archaeological sites like Stonehenge in England and Newgrange in Ireland have axes that are strategically aligned with the December solstice event. While Stonehenge’s primary axes align with the winter solstice sunset, Newgrange’s axes point towards the solstice sunrise, highlighting the moment the sun appears in the sky. Remember the Mayan 2012 Prophecy - the hype about a dooming Mayan prophecy? It predicted that the world would end at the winter solstice in 2012. It seemed like the Mayans were right about a lot of significant historical events before, so when the 5126-year long Mayan Mesoamerica Long Count Calendar was analyzed - it highlighted the December solstice as doomsday and a lot of people believed it. (I did not since no Doomsday event would happen that quickly in the quick moment of the solstice) Instead of the end of the world (or a new beginning), we just experienced another shortest day of the year, a sun standing still, and the slow approach of the longer days of summer. And that, on its own, is relatively normal for this cycle in any case. The Winter solstice event isn’t all about darkness. Numerous celebrations around the winter solstice are about lightness and rebirth. A pagan myth about the solstice is about the Norse Goddess Frigga who gave birth to her young son Baldur, on the day of the winter solstice, and the birth was viewed as her giving light to the darkness. This event is why the December solstice event is known as “Mother’s Night” in many parts of northern Europe. The Winter Solstice is a day that celebrates rebirth, light, and progress. The Egyptian goddess Isis also had a son, Horus, during the winter solstice. Mithras, the unconquered Sun of Persia, as well as Amaterasu, the Japanese Sun Goddess, were both born during the solstice. Hestia the Greek Goddess of Hearth and Home, better known as the Roman goddess Vesta, who celebrated, doused, and relighted the hearth fire on the solstice day In Scotland where they call it “Wish Night”. There the December solstice is known as a time when wishes are at their most potent and potions are to be made.Some believe that “Things go bump into the night” on the Solstice. They believe that ghosts or other supernatural beings are believed to the the source of frightening, unexplainable noises heard at night. (Sounds that are being stuck or bumped). Many cultures in the northern hemisphere say that a variety of evil spirits emerge during winter solstice eve. In some cultures, they even stayed up all night to avoid first- hand encounters with the darkness as part of their winter solstice celebrations! Winter Solstice 2022 is the Best Time for Shadow Selfies. If you like takings pictures of shadows - the winter solstice is the best time for it! During this time, the sun is at its lowest arc across the sky. This means shadows from the sun’s light are at their longest during the solstice. As a matter of fact, your noontime shadow on the day of the solstice is the longest it’ll be all year! Best experience in those long legs for as long as the winter solstice allows it! Modern Winter Solstice Celebrations are instigated by ancient civilizations and celebrated the event that marked the longest night, many modern-day pagans continue to celebrate the winter solstice event. They decorate their homes, light candles, and have festive meals with their families and friends to praise the sun’s yearly progress and the change it brings.Whichever way you celebrate the festivities and myths surrounding the winter solstice, we’re fortunate to get to see it happen every year. “A-day without sunshine is like night” If you don’t like getting up before the sun rises, the winter solstice brings good tidings to your side of the world because things are about to lighten up! Blessings to all of you....