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Winter Solstice

The shortest day of the year… The longest night of the year… The turning of the season from Autumn to Winter…

All that and more happens today. Almost every ancient culture had a tradition associated with this event, marking the slow progression of more light every day until the Vernal Equinox marked the beginning of Spring.

The Romans celebrated Saturnalia, which according to Wiki, was: “Originally celebrated by the ancient Greeks as Kronia, the festival of Chronos, Saturnalia was the feast at which the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of Saturn…Saturnalia became one of the most popular Roman festivals which led to more tomfoolery, marked chiefly by having masters and slaves ostensibly switch places, temporarily reversing the social order.”

In the modern world, we’re used to the Solstice falling sometime around the 21st or 22nd, but I found it interesting to note that it was once assigned to the 25th – our traditional day for Christmas. Wiki has the following explanation:

“Since 45 BC, when the 25th was established in the Julian calendar as the winter solstice of Europe, the difference between the calendar year (365.2500 days) and the tropical year (365.2422 days) moved the day associated with the actual astronomical solstice forward approximately three days every four centuries until 1582 when Pope Gregory XIII changed the calendar bringing the northern winter solstice to around December 21. Yearly, in the Gregorian calendar the solstice still moves around a bit, but in the long term, only about one day per 3000 years.”

I never realized that Chirstmas was originally set to be on the Winter Solstice but because of math and some rotational difficulties, it wound up being a few days after for us modern-type folks. You learn something new every day.

Happy Solstice to all and welcome back the light that will be increasing each day from here forward!