Harking back to nature
By Barbara Damrosch
Tonight at precisely 7:22, while you are washing dishes, doing your holiday shopping or reading this newspaper, the sun will stand still. At that point in Earth's yearly orbit around the sun, the Northern Hemisphere will have tilted away from the sun as far as it's going to go. The sun's zenith (the high point of its arc) today is the lowest of the year. Six months later it will reach the highest. Today, the winter solstice, marks the year's shortest day and longest night.
The sun doesn't literally stop, but, to highly observant Neolithic man, it seemed to, partly because the increments by which the days shorten and then lengthen at this time are so small. The sun, on which all life depends, withholds its power in winter and seems to hesitate before deciding to return and gradually wake up the Earth again. To early man, it was a solemn, frightening moment.
Most modern religious occasions correspond to agricultural festivals that predate them, and our present customs still reflect that connection. In spring, the observance of Easter has roots in fertility celebrations universally practiced at that time of year. Some people have linked its name to Eostre, a Saxon fertility goddess, and images of fecundity still abound. Eggs are discovered in green grass. They are brought by a rabbit -- an animal that can conceive even while bearing a litter.
In the Christmas season, we still deck the halls with evergreen branches just as the ancient Romans did during the late December feast of Saturnalia, which honored Saturn, a god of agriculture. The tradition passed to Europe, where holiday activities still feature conifers, holly and mistletoe, plants that wear their green even in winter's deathlike grip. Cultures around the world light fires and candles at this time to propitiate the forces of darkness and banish the gloom left by the departing sun. Removed as we might sometimes be from both nature and religion in modern times, some essential feelings are the same as they ever were. I wonder if the oft-mentioned "Christmas blues" is a symptom not of the holidays and their attendant frenzy, but a primal reaction to the year's darkest time, which shopping for gifts fails to dispel. I've noticed that holiday cheer with links to a more Earth-centered past does more to lift our mood.
To read the full article at washingtonpost.com, please go here
To read more about winter solstice celebrations at wikipedia.org, please go here
Winter solstic photo credit: Ennor
