Winter Solstice Celebration
“In the bleak midwinter, frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, long ago.”
This Victorian-era poem-turned-Christmas carol is an apt description of the winter season in the Northern Hemisphere. Each September, the light of day incrementally gives way to longer and longer nights as the temperature drops and the ground frosts over. It was at this time of year in the days of yore, on the longest and darkest night of winter, that our ancient kindred decided to throw a party.
“The last days of this glacial winter are not yet past; we live in ‘creation’s dawn.’ The morning stars still sing together, and the world, though made, is still being made and becoming more beautiful every day.”
In the short, dark days surrounding the impending festival of Yule it can be easy to feel the familiar melancholy of the season. This time of year, many people report an increase in feelings of anxiety and depression as well as general reduction of energy levels. These symptoms are not an exclusively modern phenomena either; it is rooted deeply in our past.
Pre-dating our neolithic ancestors (1), early human beings battled anxieties about surviving through the harsh winter until the spring. With food and supplies from the past harvest beginning to deplete and, in many cases, fluctuating weather and temperature made the long nights of winter not only bleak, but dangerous. Still, as humans are so brilliant at doing, they persevered; they were resilient. Historical records tell of large feasts and roaring bonfires that banished the darkness on the longest night of the year. This gave them hope and allowed them to embrace the ‘spirit’ of the season. In this case, spirit means a renewal of the intimate connection to oneself, the community in which one lives, and the natural world. By honoring and re-attuning to the spirit, our ancestors found the inner strength to carry on knowing that each day going forward would be just a little longer and a little bit brighter.
The festival of midwinter, one of the oldest known winter celebrations (2), has endured throughout the ages and can be found in some form practiced by almost all cultures around the globe (3). This signals an anthropological connection amongst all humanity: at our best, an instinctive will to join together and stand against the darkness until the light breaks.
While Pagan festivals, which popularized the burning of the yule log and bringing of evergreens indoors, are commonly the first to come to mind when thinking of midwinter celebrations of time past, our modern Western traditions are influenced by other parts of the world as well. Saturnalia, a Roman festival in honor of (you guessed it,) the god Saturn, is one of great socio-traditional impact. Saturnalia is where most of the traditions for the modern celebration of Christmas originated (4). In ancient Rome, homes were decked with wild greenery and candles, the custom of gift giving arose, and feasts both public and private were popular (4). In fact, if a modern person were to don a toga and hop in a time machine, they would have a halfway decent chance of recognizing the customs and blending in.
While Rome owned a great deal of the ancient world, it didn’t have a monopoly on midwinter celebrations. The Persian festival of Shab-e-Yalda is marked by family gatherings and the eating of fruits and nuts, specifically the pomegranate. Echoing the sentiments of other cultural midwinter celebrations, the red fruit represents the light of dawn breaking over the horizon to end the long night of winter (5). The people of the Hopi tribe in Northern Arizona, USA celebrate Soyal to welcome the return of the sun with singing, dancing, the making and exchanging of dolls amongst the children, and performing rituals to ask the gods for protection and abundance in the coming season (6).
Not to be outdone, in a more recent addition to the midwinter melange, international researchers spending the long and dangerous winter in the brutally cold weather of Antarctica mark the holiday as well. After spending a year awash in an endless monotony of bright white snow, the celebration of Midwinter in the research stations incorporates many modern winter holiday traditions to lighten the mood, with possibly one notable less-than-common addition: an ice hole plunge. These medically supervised frigid swims are a chance for a change in routine and a fun way to celebrate the achievements of the previous year (7).
Regardless of where you are in the world or what philosophies you practice, there is a good chance at least some of your winter traditions can be directly linked to the ancient festival of midwinter, and just as it has throughout the ages, this time of year affords us many opportunities. During this time of year when the light fades quickly reducing our Vitamin D intake and the risk for seasonal depression is at its highest, taking the opportunity to explore midwinter traditions can help us create a mental shift and prepare for the coming year.
Take a cue from nature. At this time when the weather is at its least hospitable, don’t fight it, lean in. Go inside. Take stock. What will you plant in the season to come? What do you want to harvest at the end of the coming year? And what can you add, or perhaps more importantly, let go of to make your harvest full?
This year, Apraxis Center will host our own Midwinter Solstice Celebration. This experiential evening will embrace the roots of the holiday to foster community while giving everyone involved the opportunity for self-reflection and spiritual renewal. By celebrating the solstice together and intentionally seeking a greater connection to nature, this event aims to provide psychological and spiritual benefits for individuals looking to find meaning in the changing seasons.
(1) Winter Solstice - date, definition & traditions (no date) History.com. Available at: https://www.history.com/topics/natural-disasters-and-environment/winter-solstice (Accessed: 05 December 2023).
(2) Micketti, A. (2023) Winter Solstice: A time for reflection and reconnecting with nature, Scrumptious Bites by Cheryl’s Cookies. Available at: https://www.cheryls.com/blog/winter-solstice-facts/#:~:text=Winter%20solstice%20is%20one%20of,in%20the%20middle%20of%20winter. (Accessed: 05 December 2023).
(3) Winter Solstice: Stories and traditions from around the world: Three Rivers Park District (no date) Winter Solstice: Stories and Traditions From Around the World | Three Rivers Park District. Available at: https://www.threeriversparks.org/blog/winter-solstice-stories-and-traditions-around-world#:~:text=Winter%20solstice%20is%20also%20a,Hindu%20celebration%20of%20Makar%20Sankranti. (Accessed: 05 December 2023).
(4) Saturnalia (no date) Encyclopedia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Saturnalia-Roman-festival (Accessed: 05 December 2023).
(5) Sirang Rasaneh, www. sirang. com (no date) Yalda Night 2023 (events in Iran) - itto, itto.org | Iran Tourism & Touring. Available at: https://itto.org/iran/event/yalda-night/ (Accessed: 05 December 2023).
(6) 12 days of celebrations - soyal (2016) Food Services. Available at: http://dev.ueat.utoronto.ca/12-days-of-celebrations-soyal/ (Accessed: 05 December 2023).
(7) Midwinter Day in Antarctica celebrated with ice-hole plunge (2021) Australian Government – Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water: Australian Antarctic Division | Australian Antarctic Program. Available at: https://www.antarctica.gov.au/news/2021/midwinter-day-in-antarctica-celebrated-with-ice-hole-plunge/ (Accessed: 05 December 2023).
