Winter Solstice
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Winter Solstice Celebration
The solstice marks the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere and summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
Why celebrate? The winter solstice brings the shortest day - and the longest night - of the year. The sun appears at its lowest point in the sky, and its noontime elevation appears to be the same for several days before and after the solstice. Hence the origin of the word solstice, which comes from Latin solstitium, from sol, "sun" and -stitium, "a stoppage." Following the winter solstice, the days begin to grow longer and the nights shorter. It's the beginning of new life...celebrate the return of the light.
Contents at a Glance
Winter Solstice Winter Fairy Ornaments
WhiteOak Art Designs Fairy Prints
Winter Solstice Winter Fairy - 3 Inch Snowflake Porcelain Ornament
This Glossy Porcelain Snowflake Ornament image is printed on both sides. Comes with the gold hanging cord.
When Is Winter Solstice
Countdown to Winter Solstice
Equinox, Solstice & Cross-Quarter Moments
- Chart of 2011 equinox, solstice and cross quarter dates and times, worldwide from archaeoastronomy.com
- Equinox, Solstice and Cross Quarter moments, seasonal boundaries for calendar 2011, precise to the minute, for world time zones, spring, summer, fall, winter, Imbolc, Beltaine, Lughnasad, samhain.
- Chart of 2012 equinox, solstice and cross quarter dates and times, worldwide from archaeoastronomy.com
- Equinox, Solstice and Cross Quarter moments, seasonal boundaries for calendar 2012, precise to the minute, for world time zones, spring, summer, fall, winter, Imbolc, Beltaine, Lughnasad, samhain.
- when each season starts 2011 2012 first day of winter, spring, summer, fall
- Find when each season starts for 2011 and 2012--the winter solstice, spring equinox, summer solstice, and fall equinox.
Do You Celebrate the Solstice?
How Do You Celebrate The Solstice?
Please leave all other comments in the guestbook at the end of this page.
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Edutopia
Feb 14, 2012 @ 10:56 am | delete
- I'm fairly close to the equatorial region so the solstice doesn't mean too much change for me but I'm always ready to party so my friends and I have taken to blocking off some time to catch up and socialize every solstice.
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mihgasper
Dec 18, 2011 @ 6:17 am | delete
- Don't celebrate it but have good feeling when it is over because days will become longer and the sun will bring more joy in out environment.
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ellagis
Jul 5, 2011 @ 3:26 pm | delete
- I started celebrating it since when I moved to Denmark. When the winter solstice comes, you really feel you need more light, and you´re fed up of cold and darkness! So, I light some extra candles, just to "welcome" light to come back.
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TeaLady
Jul 9, 2011 @ 11:30 pm | delete
- ellagis, I so agree!!
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scar4
Jan 10, 2011 @ 2:07 am | delete
- We eat dumplings on the day of winter solstice to protect our ears from frostbiting in this cold season. That's an interesting custom in China.
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Winter Soltice Extreme of Winter
The Winter Soltice "extreme of winter" holiday honors the end of the harvest and the return to hearth and home. In agricultural societies and the practice of Feng Shui, winter is associated with completion, storage and conservation of energy, until springtime arrives with the promise of a new beginning.
Winter Solstice at Machu Picchu At Sunrise
The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a minimum for the year.
Order The Winter Solstice: The Sacred Traditions of Christmas
by John Matthews
Music for the Winter Solstice
Brighten the darkest day of the year with beautiful music.
Winter Solstice Tunes
iTunes
| Track | Artist | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Winter Solstice | Michele McLaughlin | Christmas - Plain & Simple | |
| Winter Solstice | R. Carlos Nakai | Inner Voices | |
| Canon In D | Winter Solstice | Winter Solstice: Carol of the Bells, Christmas Canon, O, Christmas Tree | |
| Winter Solstice | R. Carlos Nakai | Changes |
Winter Solstice at Stonehenge at Sunrise
A solstice calendar of surprising accuracy, Stonehenge dates back almost 5,000 years.
photo from deadlyphoto.com
Celebrating A Celtic Christmas
The Pagan Celebration of Yule
Longest Night of the Year
"The Pagan celebration of Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) is one of the oldest winter celebrations in the world.
Ancient people were hunters and spent most of their time outdoors. The seasons and weather played a very important part in their lives. Because of this many ancient people had a great reverence for, and even worshipped the sun. The Norsemen of Northern Europe saw the sun as a wheel that changed the seasons. It was from the word for this wheel, houl, that the word yule is thought to have come. At mid-winter the Norsemen lit bonfires, told stories and drank sweet ale.
The ancient Romans also held a festival to celebrate the rebirth of the year. Saturnalia ran for seven days from the 17th of December. It was a time when the ordinary rules were turned upside down. Men dressed as women and masters dressed as servants. The festival also involved decorating houses with greenery, lighting candles, holding processions and giving presents.(bbc.co.uk)
Before Christianity came to the British Isles the Winter Solstice was held on the shortest day of the year (21st December). The Druids (Celtic priests) would cut the mistletoe that grew on the oak tree and give it as a blessing. Oaks were seen as sacred and the winter fruit of the mistletoe was a symbol of life in the dark winter months.
It was also the Druids who began the tradition of the yule log. The Celts thought that the sun stood still for twelve days in the middle of winter and during this time a log was lit to conquer the darkness, banish evil spirits and bring luck for the coming year.
Many of these customs are still followed today. They have been incorporated into the Christian and secular celebrations of Christmas."
~~(bbc.co.uk)
Winter Solstice at Newgrange
On the 21st December each year a beam of sunlight shines up the passageway to light the central chamber of Newgrange. These are images taken during several visits at this time to the music titled Newgrange by Clannad.
The Winter Solstice Illumination of Newgrange
At dawn on Winter Solstice every year, just after 9am, the sun begins to rise across the Boyne Valley from Newgrange over a hill known locally as Red Mountain. Given the right weather conditions, the event is spectacular. Click the link to read more and to see the photos.
- The Winter Solstice illumination of Newgrange
- Pictures of the sunlight entering the passage, including stunning photos from inside the chamber, of Newgrange at dawn on December 21st, 1999, the dawn of the new millennium.
Winter Solstice Gifts
Order This Mayan Calendar
The Temple of Kukulkan, the Feathered Serpent God at Chichen Itza
Very popular place to celebrate the Solstice
The Temple of Kukulkan, the Feathered Serpent God (also known as Quetzalcoatl to the Aztecs) is the largest and most important ceremonial structure at Chichen Itza.
This ninety-foot tall pyramid was built during the eleventh to thirteenth centuries directly upon the multiple foundations of previous temples.
The architecture of the pyramid encodes precise information regarding the Mayan calendar. Each face of the four-sided structure has a stairway with ninety-one steps, which together with the shared step of the platform at the top, add up to 365, the number of days in a year. These stairways also divide the nine terraces of each side of the pyramid into eighteen segments, representing the eighteen months of the Mayan calendar.
The pyramid is also directionally oriented to mark the solstices and equinoxes. The axes that run through the northwest and southwest corners of the pyramid are oriented toward the rising point of the sun at the summer solstice and its setting point at the winter solstice.
The northern stairway was the principal sacred path leading to the summit. At sunset on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, an interplay between the sun's light and the edges of the stepped terraces on the pyramid creates a fascinating - and very brief - shadow display upon the sides of the northern stairway. A serrated line of seven interlocking triangles gives the impression of a long tail leading downward to the stone head of the serpent Kukulkan, at the base of the stairway.
Adjacent to the head of Kukulkan, a doorway leads to an interior staircase ending at a small and very mysterious shrine.
Chichen Itza Photos From Flickr
Their city became known as Chichen Itza, which means "Mouth of the Well of ... the sun at the summer solstice and its setting point at the winter solstice.
The most yin time of year from a Feng Shui perspective, winter is associated with still water, cold, the moon, silence and darkness.
More Info about the Solstice
- Solstice - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Solstice From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Solstice a Cause for Celebration Since Ancient Times
- National Geographic - Although the year's shortest day heralds the onset of winter in the Northern Hemisphere it also promises the gradual return of the sun after a prolonged period of darkness. Since ancient times, people have celebrated the solstice and observed it with many different cultural and religious traditi
- Blather: Blather: Winter Solstice at Stonehenge
- Dave escapes the gravitational pull of London, stopping off for a mid-winter visit to Britain's best-known megalithic site...
Celebrations of the Solstice
- Winter solstice celebrations of Christianity, Judaism, Neopaganism, etc
- Winter solstice celebrations of Christianity, Judaism, Neopaganism, etc.
- Winter Solstice Traditions
- Winter Solstice:
The Unconquered Sun At the Winter Solstice,
we celebrate Children's Day to honour our children and to bring warmth,
light and cheerfulness into the dark time of the year. Holidays such
as this have their origin as "holy days". They are the way human beings
mark the sacre - Circle Sanctuary - Winter Solstice
- Information about the Season, ce;ebrations for the family.
- Native American Winter Solstice Celebration
- Native American Winter Solstice Celebration
- Celebrating Winter Solstice - School of the Seasons
- The Winter Solstice is unique among days of the year=; the time of the longest night and the shortest day. The dark triumphs but only briefly. For the Solstice is also a turning point. From now on (until the Summer Solstice, at any rate), the nights grow shorter and the days grow lon
- The Winter Solstice Festival
- The Winter Solstice Festival by Tony Palermo
Everybody knows that in December, people celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah
(and now, the newly minted African-American holiday,
Kwanzaa), but how many realize just how cl
Winter Solstice Photos
What Is So Important About The Winter Solstice of 2012
Mayan Calendar
- Crystal Lotus
- Winter Solstice of 2012 What is so important about the winter solstice of 2012? How were calculations made so accurately? The Sacred Tree of the Mayans is the crossing point of the ecliptic with the band of the Milky Way. The Milky Way plays an important role in Mayan images.
Listen To Solstice Concert On NPR Radio
- NPR : A 'Paul Winter Solstice' Celebration
- Award-winning saxophonist and composer Paul Winter presents his annual Winter Solstice Concert -- a musical, theatrical and environmental spectacle celebrating the return of the sun after the longest night of the year.
Solstice Projects
- 2 Winter Solstice Projects
- winter solstice project, prayer stick and stones
Food For Winter Solstice
Tweets About Winter Solstice
Celebrating Summer Solstice
Order Celtic Solstice
Reviewer: Shanshad "shanachie_shadowfax" (Discworld)
Imagine waiting in the world's largest gothic cathedral in the predawn hours of the Summer solstice. Now imagine that huge space with it's vaulting ceilings, mighty piers and somber shadows being filled with music and light. The soaring of a pipe organ, a jazzy and passionate alto saxophone, the soul-stirring Uillean pipes and ethereal voices weaving through the space to create something beautifully meditate and powerfully soul-inspiring. Can you see it? Then you have some idea of this CD and the background in which this music was created.
The Celtic Solstice CD showcases Paul Winter's musical feast on the Summer Solstice performed at St. John the Divine in New York City. With a melding of Irish and North American artists, he crafts an awe-inspiring experience that dips and soars through the soul with slow grace and timeless elegance. The fusion of jazz and traditional Celtic-of international sounds and modern instruments create something new and wonderful-something that truly is "the music of what happens". So, what does happen when you bring together renowned Uillean pipe player Davy Spillane, Riverdance fiddler Eileen Ivers, ethereal vocalist Karan Casey and whistle-player Joanie Madden with a host of other musicians in a space both sacred and joyful? Pure magic.
In winter, it's natural for us to rest and reflect - taking comfort in warm foods, loving companionship, and stillness. However, rather than honoring the quiet, introspective side of our nature in winter, we create expectations that bring even more stress to our lives. Rather than filling our days with activity, it would be more wise to acknowledge the cycles of nature, gravitating to shelter and warmth during this season, gathering emotional support and comfort at this bleakest time of the year.
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What Are Your Thoughts About The Solstice?
I want to hear from you
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Terrie_Schultz
Jan 4, 2012 @ 6:16 pm | delete
- Beautiful lens. I love the winter solstice.
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GaelicForge
Dec 26, 2011 @ 12:34 pm | delete
- The Solstice was hijacked by the Catholic church in order to demonize the pagan cultures and suppress their beliefs much like the Romans would do wherever they committed their crimes against humanity in the name of civilization. Being of Pictish heritage, I feel rather strongly about this.
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---Chazz
Dec 22, 2011 @ 12:11 pm | delete
- Love the Paul Winter concert. Nothing beats hearing this at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC, though. If you ever get the opportunity to do that do NOT miss it!
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Upon-Request
Dec 22, 2011 @ 9:11 am | delete
- Lovely lens. I think there are many who aren't aware of the "intertwining" of some popular Christian holidays with Celtic or Pagan.
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Frischy
Dec 22, 2011 @ 8:15 am | delete
- Beautiful! We welcome the light!
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Review Winter Solstice
by TeaLady
Grandma, Reiki Master, Artist and traveler looking for others that want to laugh, dance and create! Celebrating the Solstice is always fun!
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Winter Solstice
A Winter's Solstice: Silver Anniversary Edition
Amazon Price: $13.82 (as of 02/16/2012)
Dawn Atkinson, who produced the first Winter Solstice disc, has gone back to her original concept of nontraditional seasonal music and novel arrangements of Christmas classics. ~~Amazon
The Return of the Light:
Twelve Tales from Around the World for the Winter Solstice
The Return of the Light: Twelve Tales from Around the World for the Winter Solstice
Amazon Price: $8.27 (as of 02/16/2012)
Celebrations honoring the winter solstice as a moment of transition and renewal date back thousands of years and occur among many peoples on every continent. The Return of the Light makes an ideal companion for everyone who carries on this tradition, no matter what their faith. Storyteller Carolyn McVickar Edwards retells twelve traditional tales-from North America, China, Scandinavia, India, Africa, South America, Europe, and Polynesia-that honor this magical moment. These are stories that will renew our wonder of the miracle of rebirth and the power of transition from darkness into light. ~~Amazon
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