The Winter Solstice for the Northern Hemisphere is today Thursday, December 21st and as we all know that means it is the shortest day of the year for sunlight or if you are in the Southern Hemisphere it is the longest day! Officially the first day of winter, the winter solstice occurs when the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. This is the longest night of the year, meaning that despite the cold winter, the days get progressively longer after until the summer solstice. And here where I live, in Central IL, the solstice is at 11:56am.
The term solstice means "sun stands still." On the year's two solstices (winter and summer) the sun appears to halt in its incremental journey across the sky and change little in position during this time. Of course, contrary to appearances from Earth, the sun's "changing position" throughout the year is actually caused by the rotation of the Earth on its tilted axis as it circles the sun each year.
One of the most famous celebrations of the winter solstice in the world today takes place in the ancient ruins of Stonehenge, England. Thousands of Druids and Pagans gather there to chant, dance and sing while waiting to see the spectacular sunrise.
Winter Solstice Has Been Celebrated Since Ancient Times
Here is list of some of the celebrations
- Saturnalia – Roman Celebration
- St. Lucia’s Day – Scandinavia Celebration
- Dong Zhi – Chinese Celebration
- Shab-e Yalda (Mithra) – Iranian Celebration
- Inti Raymi (Quechua) – Peruvian Celebration
- Shalako – Zuni Indians – Western New Mexico, USA
- Soyal – Hopi of Northern Arizona, USA
- Toji – Japanese Celebration
The holiday timing of the winter solstice is rooted in ancient religions. Throughout history, humans have observed this seasonal milestone and created spiritual and cultural traditions to celebrate the rebirth of sunlight after the darkest period of the year.
Modern pagans attempt to observe the solstice in the traditional manner of the ancients. "There is a resurgent interest in more traditional religious groups that is often driven by ecological motives," said Harry Yeide, a professor of religion at George Washington University. "These people do celebrate the solstice itself."
Many more people observe the solstice while participating in modern holidays—even if they do not always realize the connection.
The Solstice Christmas Connection
Scholars don't agree about the exact origins of Christmas. "In the early years of the Christian church, the calendar was centered around Easter," said Yeide. "Nobody knows exactly where and when (perhaps in Egypt) they began to think it suitable to celebrate Christ's birth as well as the passion cycle (the crucifixion and resurrection)."
Eastern churches traditionally celebrate Christmas on January 6, a date known as Epiphany in the West. The Gospels do not specify when Christ was born, so the date may have been originally chosen because of the belief that the season of Christ's conception would be that same as that of his death and resurrection.
But the new celebration soon became co-mingled with traditional observances of the solstice.
"As the Christmas celebration moved west," Yeide said "the date that had traditionally been used to celebrate the winter solstice became sort of available for conversion to the observance of Christmas. In the Western church, the December date became the date for Christmas."
Traditional solstice celebrations existed in many cultures. The Roman feast of Saturnalia, honoring the God Saturn, was a weeklong December feast that included the observance of the winter solstice. Romans also celebrated the lengthening of days following the solstice by paying homage to Mithra—an ancient Persian god of light.
Christian leaders of the time endeavored to attract pagans to their faith by adding Christian meaning to these existing festivals.
"This gave rise to an interesting play on words," said Yeide. "In several languages, not just in English, people have traditionally compared the rebirth of the sun with the birth of the son of God."
Most celebrations of the winter solstice in Europe involved merriment and feasting. In pre-Christian Scandinavia, the Feast of Juul, or Yule, lasted for 12 days celebrating the rebirth of the sun and giving rise to the custom of burning a Yule log.
In ancient Rome, the winter solstice was celebrated at the Feast of Saturnalia, to honor Saturn, the god of agricultural bounty. Lasting about a week, Saturnalia was characterized by feasting, debauchery and gift-giving. With Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, many of these customs were later absorbed into Christmas celebrations.
In 325 C.E., which is when the Catholic Church was officially organized, it decreed that the resurrection of Christ was determined by the vernal equinox – which is still celebrated today as "Easter," named after the pagan goddess of spring Ēostre.
In 350, Pope Julius I decreed that the nativity should be celebrated on the same day as all other sun gods, namely December 25. But many churches did not want to be associated with the pagan religions, and to this day the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the birth of Christ on January 7 – the day after Epiphany. In view of the connection between the solstice and the new solar year, it is obvious that the babe in the manger and the babe in the diaper with a New Year's banner around his chest are really the same – a symbol of the reborn sun god. The sun god was always the most important in any polytheistic culture, and the winter solstice always marked his death and resurrection, or rebirth.
Some of the major gods who celebrated their birthdays on December 25 were:
- Marduk
- Osiris
- Horus
- Isis
- Mithras
- Saturn
- Sol
- Apollo
- Serapis
- Huitzilopochli
Saturnalia was the most important festival throughout the Roman Empire, and it had been going on for thousands of years even before the emperor Aurelian established December 25 as a state holiday. So, when you hear someone say that "we ought to get back to the true meaning of Christmas," just remember that the original meaning is a pagan celebration of nature. And, when they go on to denounce the "creeping commercialization of Christmas," remember that the week of feasting and gift-giving, climaxed by Sol Invictus, naturally meant business for merchants – so for more than four thousand years the winter solstice has always been "commercialized."
Thanks for taking the time to read this post! And again I wanted to say that I put together this post together just to give a quick brief history of the Winter Solstice. I encourage everyone to not take my word for it, and search out more information on this subject for yourself!
Sources:
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1220_021220_solstice.html
http://www.history.com/news/history-lists/8-winter-solstice-celebrations-around-the-world
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/winter-solstice-pagan-yule_us_585970abe4b03904470af4c5
http://www.miltontimmons.com/SolsticeandChristmas.html
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