Welcome to the new website!

Welcome to the new on-line home of A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual

http://awssr.co.uk/

You are invited to

The 29th Annual Winter Solstice Celebrations

Celebrating the Darkness and the Light
with Songs and Stories

A time of quiet reflection in the midst of the hectic festive season

Songs, stories, candle-lighting, silent meditation, singing, and more  

All ages welcome

The Celebration usually lasts one hour and fifteen minutes

Programme

If you'd like to view the programme in advance, please click here.

2025 Participating Communities

I will post these as I find out about them

Thursday, December 18
Friday, December 19
6:30 pm for 7:00 pm

• https://indysolstice.com/

• This is one of our longest-standing participating communities and it's amazing to see them doing this in person again

Saturday, December 20
18:45 for 19:00 UTC

• Hosted privately on-line

• open to friends all over the world

• email stasa dot website at gmail dot com if you'd like an invitation

Sunday, December 21
11:00 am Eastern Time
In-person and on-line — Grand Rapids, MI

• All Souls Community Church of West Michigan, Grand Rapids, MI

• More info:

  • https://www.allsoulscommunity.org/about-us/our-calendar/

  • https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1276722074500227&set=pb.100064873385001.-2207520000

  • https://www.facebook.com/events/2354995304970627/?rdid=nzdqNxYLIlgIDkZ9&share_url=https%253A%252F%252Fwww.facebook.com%252Fshare%252F1BjwvC6euD%252F&ref=110#

Looking for a local Celebration? Hosting a Celebration? Want to learn more about the updating and re-publishing project?

If you aren't already on our mailing list and would like to receive updates about future Song-Learning Sessions, Celebrations, and the project to update and re-publish A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual, please fill out the form below, or click here:  https://forms.gle/miyNuBaCyeUVJ15u8

December 2025 Re-Publishing Update

Exciting news!

I can finally make concrete plans for re-publishing A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual!  (Yay! :Kermit flail:)  I think I'm 2/3 excited and 1/3 nervous about this.  Which is a much better ratio than the first time!

I'm aiming for 2027, which would be — gulp! — 30 years since the first year we started doing these, and 25 years after we first published AWSSR.  

There are some changes I'm hoping to make— some in terms of tech, some in terms of my, and our collective, expanded understanding of racism and of the artificial gender binary, as well as some more general ones around what has worked for people using this resource, what hasn't, what could be improved, and more.  

The first group of people I want to turn to for feedback will be the folks who've been involved with this over the years — people who've done this Celebration with their families, their small groups, their large groups, their congregations, their choirs, their communities.  

So I aim to be in touch via the mailing list sometime in the New Year, asking for feedback.  So maybe start thinking about what changes you'd like to see, in content or in form, when I re-publish this.  

It's also fine if you have no feedback!  

But I want to give people who are familiar with this — even if you've only ever been part of it once or twice — the first chance for input.  

The elephant in the room: some problematic bits in A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual   

Since we first published A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual in 2002, I have learned that there are  more than two genders; that First Nations people do not consider John G. Neihardt, a white man who profited from adapting Oglala Lakota stories and selling them to white (settler) people, to be a reliable chronicler of their peoples; that Marianne Williamson has some deeply problematic views about HIV/AIDS, illness, and disability; and that Inuit peoples exist and have flourishing arts communities, as do other Indigenous and First Nations peoples.  

A Winter Solstice Singing Ritual is currently out of print; I (Staṡa) still have some copies available to sell in the UK and Europe, but Julie has none in the US.  I am hoping to re-publish AWSSR; when I do, I am looking to improve the narration's binary language around gender and That-Which-Is-Sacred; to replace the reading by Neihardt and the “traditional Inuit poem” with works by contemporary First Nations and Inuit artists, who will receive royalties; and to pay royalties for both music and readings to communities of color in addition to individuals.  

Julie and I are currently in discussion about next steps, and I hope to have an update before the end of 2024.

October 2025 update:  I am looking to start work in 2026 towards republishing in 2027, which would be the 30th anniversary year of the first Winter Solstice Celebration we hosted!