The winter solstice marks the shortest, darkest day and the rebirth of the sun.
The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year. This year, which has felt long and dark to many people, may be a good time to honor the solstice. The 2020 winter solstice is Monday, December 21.
Here at In Harmony, we work to connect our practices and our clients’ landscapes with the rhythms of Mother Nature. The solstice celebrates our connection with the natural world: with darkness and light, the stars and the sun.
At the winter solstice, we may want to pause to appreciate the darkness. This is the moment when the sun pauses too. It stops its apparent southward path and moves back toward the north.
While the winter solstice marks the shortest, darkest day, it also marks the rebirth of the sun, when days begin to grow longer. Perhaps the return of the light will also mark the beginning of better times ahead.
To honor the solstice, you could find a place outside away from the bright lights. Or you could darken your home and light candles. You could make a fire in your fireplace.
Perhaps you will want to take a moment to think about your connection to the sun and its eternal motion, and your relationship with the planet. You could consider what you are grateful for, even in dark days, what you would like to release into the darkness, and what you would like to bring forward into the light.
Yule Prayer
The Pagans would pray to the sun at the winter solstice. They would celebrate with drinking, dancing and singing after the ceremonies were finished. Many of the traditions continue today. Here is a Pagan Yule prayer.
“Great sun, wheel of fire, sun god in your glory,
hear me as I honor you
on this, the shortest day of the year.
Summer has gone, passed us by,
the fields are dead and cold,
all of earth sleeps in your absence.
Even in the darkest times,
you light the way for those who need a beacon,
of hope, of brightness,
shining in the night.
Winter is here, and colder days coming,
the fields are bare and the livestock thin.
We light these candles in your honor,
that you might gather your strength
and bring life back to the world.
O mighty sun above us,
we ask you to return, to bring back to us
the light and the warmth of your fire.
Bring life back to earth.
Bring light back to earth.
Hail the sun!”
Solstice poetry
Perhaps a Pagan prayer is not your style. We offer an excerpt from a poem by Margaret Atwood.
“…This is the solstice, the still point
of the sun, its cusp and midnight,
the year’s threshold
and unlocking, where the past
lets go of and becomes the future;
the place of caught breath, the door
of a vanished house left ajar…”
― Eating Fire: Selected Poetry 1965-1995
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