Well, happy that we'll starting gaining minutes of daylight once again!
Is today the "shortest day of the year"? No, they're all 24 hours; but it is the day with the fewest hours/minutes of daylight. And that depends on your latitude...
Throughout history, societies across the world have held festivals and ceremonies marking winter solstice, the day of the “sun’s rebirth.” Most often, winter solstice celebrations honored the symbolism of fire and light, along with life, death, the rising sun, and the moon. Saturnalia for example, was an ancient Roman pagan festival dedicated to honoring the sun god Saturn through offerings and gift-giving. In Mali, a ceremony called Goru is celebrated by the Dogon community where a seven foot long vessel representing a mythical ark is used to hold offerings to Amma the Creator and other ancestors. Another tradition that we still hear about today is Yule (or Yuletide). Similarly, Indigenous people continue to mark the solstice with storytelling and ceremony.
The winter solstice is special because it marks a powerful turning point where darkness reaches its peak and the light slowly begins to return. Rather than signaling an ending, the solstice represents a quiet rebirth — a reminder that even in the deepest stillness, change is already underway.
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The new battery for the Burgman scoot was delivered this evening. Installed, checked, and it fired right up. Now, I just have to find time to get out and ride it. These two wheeled conveyances are getting a lot of attention lately... except for the actual getting out for a ride. I'm going to work on that. :-)
2 comments:
Here at latitude 43° we get a hair under nine hours of daylight (8:56) and that feels like a lot of darkness. On the plus side, the neighbors across the street have an extensive light display which we get to enjoy without the hassle. The Solstice is worse in Alaska, where Anchorage gets 5½ hours and Fairbanks gets 3:41 of daylight for minimums. The sun comes only a few degrees above the horizon, slides horizontally across the sky barely above the mountains, then disappears again. I'm glad to live in the "south" these days, or as Alaskans call it - the Lesser 48. Not as hardy as I used to be....
The Land of the Midnight Sun... the flip side of the Winter Solstice, huh. We notice the difference here in Arizona compared to Latitude 26, where we lived in Texas. You might be surprised at how many people can't believe south Texas is further south than Yuma, AZ... and especially so than Phoenix.
Nice to have a light display that you don't have to put up and take down! ;-) We always put up lights on the water side of our house in Texas - I enjoyed seeing the reflections in the water. Quite a few people in this community have put up the lights along the roof line - the kind that are designed to be up year 'round. We had to set standards for those lights with the Architectural Committee, because some people thought that meant they could just leave their (obvious) Christmas lights up all year. The permanent lights can be controlled to be different colors, or just white. Depends on the time of the year.
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