The Winter Solstice was a major pagan celebration, with rituals of rebirth of the Sun having been celebrated for thousands of years.
On Friday December 21, we were gifted with the return of longer days by Mother Earth with the celebration of the Winter Solstice. Soon to follow as we celebrate the gift of the celebration of the birth of Jesus and his wonderful light.
Many of our customs today have a basis in those early traditions including Yule logs, mistletoe and Christmas trees – having their roots in the pagan celebrations of the winter Solstice.
Long before the birth of Christ, the ancients had their own theologies. They were dependent on the seasons. As such, they followed the wheel of the year. How anxious they must have been as the days kept getting shorter and wondering if the sun would again return, reborn, giving longer days once more.
“This is Advent — as sleepers, we awaken to our own light of love, deep within us, waiting to be reborn again in the dark stables of our own souls.”
Lindsey Mead speaks to the nascent light of her own inner longing as Solstice approached, and offers a beautiful meditation by author Meg Casey that captures the hushed beauty of December here
December is a holy month. Maybe it is the dark, silky silence that descends so early that speaks to me of reverence. Maybe it is the promise that December holds — that no matter how dark, how cold, how empty it can get, the light is coming back. Something always shifts in me when December arrives — I embrace the darkness, and am eager for the coming solstice when the whole world is still and holds its breath, waiting to be reborn again.
What a not-to-be-missed treasure the natural season of Advent can be then, when the “nascent light” inside each of us can turn to, and answer, the promises of light surrounding us everywhere in the December dark — the whisper of candlelight from darkened windows, the blue-black light of dusk against the silhouetted trees of winter.
What if we could see the Winter Solstice and the birth of the Sun/son as “the light of the world.”
It’s a beautiful video that captures the essence of the season perfectly. Enya singing Silent Night in Gaelic in the background, setting the mood.
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