Winter Solstice
Darwyn Sly
As the Christmas season starts, all of the other holidays seem to fall into its shadow, the Winter Solstice is one of them. Look forward to this year’s Winter Solstice on the 21st of December at 3:59 pm.
The Winter Solstice is a pagan celebration of the return of the sun. Pagans connect spiritual beliefs and the cycle of natural life. During the Winter Solstice, the sun travels the shortest path through the sky, and thus that day has the least daylight along with the longest night. The Solstice only refers to one time of the day despite being celebrated throughout.
Now familiar signs of the holiday season (evergreens, ornaments, wreaths, and candles) were all original aspects of the celebration of the Winter Solstice.
Evergreens were the only plant with the ability to survive during winter in the Northern Hemisphere, making them a symbol of life. Ornaments placed on the evergreens symbolize the sun in both colors, red-orange, yellow, and shape, sphere, and stars. Candles, and now holiday lights, bring light into the dark season, while circles such as wreaths symbolize the continuous cycle of life and natural processes. Local places, like Allerton and the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign (UUCUC), have held events in order to celebrate the Winter Solstice. At Allerton, people are invited to sit around bonfires and walk a path lit up all the way through. At the UUCUC there are special celebrations with candles and singing. All these celebrations provide a way to connect a community and that cycle of nature pagans celebrate during the Winter Solstice.