Last week much of the world passed an important milestone. I was too busy to remark on it at the time, but it's far too important to be left unnoticed.
What is it? The winter solstice, of course. That time of the year when daylight hours, having dwindled since June, once again begin to stretch a bit longer each day, until next June of course, when the cycle repeats itself. Already, after just a week, it's possible to notice that dark comes just a few minutes later now.
The pagans had it right: They figured out that the frightening, possibly cataclysmic advance of darkness that they observed in late autumn was not the end of the world, but part of a recurrent cycle. Just to make sure, it seems, they turned the season into the festival of light that it remains even today. A couple of thousand years ago, some churchies parlayed the pagan rituals into a celebration of Jesus but it never quite stuck, somehow. It's still the light that makes it seem right.
So, three cheers for the sun. As a child, I never thought much of winter, but in my early twenties, returning to school after Christmas break, staring out the window of my study room as the sun sank slowly (but tardily) in the west, I began to think of it as our season of optimism and hope, the epitome of the mood we need to nurture this year more than ever.
Yes, for sure, this year more than ever. It's been one of the longes, darkest years I can remember.
Posted by: PiedType | December 29, 2016 at 11:02 AM