How will You celebrate the Winter Solstice?

The Winter Solstice is a pagan festival that has been celebrated world wide, and in some places since the Stone Age.  This year it falls on Saturday, December 21st, 2024. Of all the days of the year,  it has the shortest amount of daylight, and the longest amount of darknesss! The solstice is associated with the festival of Yule, a fire festival, featuring a huge log of oak, often burned for days. Saturnalia, another mid-December celebration, is a Roman festival honoring the agricultural god Saturn, and is still celebrated by some. It honors the promise of a spring harvest. Evergreens, valued because of their association with protection and immortality, are featured in all of these celebrations.

Note: Those living in the southern hemisphere will be celebrating the Summer Solstice. Please see my blog on the Summer Solstice for ideas to celebrate!

Reasons to Celebrate the Winter Solstice

Honoring nature, the return of longer days, and the celebration of increased sun and light, encompasses values all cultures and beliefs can embrace! Our reverence for nature forms a bond of unity and highlights our similarities.  All religions, cultures and ethnicities can join together in this celebration!

7 Ways to Celebrate the Winter Solstice

1. Measure the Daylight!

Make a note of the time the sun rises and sets. Mark it in your calendar. If you’re feeling dedicated, you can check and record the change in time daily, or you can just jot down the times of the sunrise and sunset every Sunday, or the first day of every month. Being aware of the length of the days and nights keeps us in touch with the cycles of nature. 

2. Journal Your Accomplishments

Since it is the end of the year, why not think about your accomplishments? Begin with the experiences and memories that make you grateful. Have you reconnected with friends from the past? Have you taken courses and learned new skills? Have you made new friends and traveled to places you’d like to revisit? Include set backs and challenges, and give yourself credit for your resiliency and progress. Have you supported others who have gone through difficult times? We should all have a running list of ways to include self care in the coming year. 
What are your goals for the coming year? What are the things that give you satisfaction that you’d like to continue to do? Is there anything you would do differently? What are you ready to completely release? The position of the moon and planets at the time of the winter solstice are ideal for letting go.  Are there things you need to release? You might want to put past frustrations aside, release the need to control, or let go of lingering grievances. It’s a perfect time to move on to things that will bring you peace of mind. 
Having these thoughts sketched out will be a wonderful start as you consider possibilities for your new year! 

3. Gathering Your KSAs!

Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes!

You are a vessel, filled with the knowledge, skills and attitudes that you have gathered that make you completely different from any one else! Do you know what they are? We are constantly learning and growing, and it’s easy to forget all of the things that make us special and unique.  Take some time between now and the new year to play!

Gather your supplies! You’ll need a huge piece of paper. You’ll need a lot of room! You’ll need your favorite drawing utensils in colors you love! Bring crayons, markers, pens and paints! 

Draw an outline with your vessel. It might be a silhouette of your shape, or it could be a circle, a  heart, your brain, or something completely unexpected and abstract. Regardless of your age, I think you will be surprised as what you have learned - and forgotten that you have learned - over the years. 
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Begin to fill your vessel with your talents, interests, skills, passions, beliefs, courses you’ve taken, books you’ve read, lessons you’ve learned, etc. Some of you will make neat, numbered lists. Others will have drawings and letters in different colors and sizes, diagonally and randomly through out your vessel. You can’t do this incorrectly! It’s about you, and YOU are the authority so create vessel that represents you. 

The important thing is to have fun! It can be a work in progress and you can continue to fill it as you grow and add new KSAs! 

4. Sharing Your Spark!

Now that you’ve gathered the wealth of all the knowledge, skills and attitudes that make up the miraculous you, give some thought about how you will use them! You might want to share and process with a friend or a group you trust. Think of ways to combine your talents that you haven’t considered before!  

Show Up, Share and Sparkle!

​ (Just in case you aren’t aware, this is an excellent example of marketing!)
Use this information to make 2024 the best year you’ve ever had!

5. Incorporate Winter Solstice Herbs!

Evergreens - If you haven’t already made one, create a simple evergreen swag to hang on your door . Gather branches of pine or fir as the base, add holly, ivy, juniper and mistletoe. secure with a heavy rubber band and decorate with ribbons. Place branches of pine, spruce or cedar on your window sills. Evergreens provide protection and their ability to remain green and alive in the dark days of winter gave them magical associations. Cedar branches were gathered to help those experiencing grief from suffering a loss.
Rosemary - Rosemary is the herb associated with friendship and remembrance. It stimulates the brain and encourages pleasant memories of loved ones. 
Chamomile - Chamomile tea is ideal for relieving stress and promoting a good night’s sleep. 
Lavender - A tea made of lavender will create a feeling of calm and promote healing. Epson salt baths with lavender and especially therapeutic this time of year. This will be especially delightful when you come in from stargazing (see # 7 below).

6. Embrace the Light

Do you have an enormous oak Yule Log handy? I don’t. But I can find a place to watch the sun rise and/or sunset. Do you have a fireplace or fire pit? How about a wood or pellet stove? Light tea candles! Fire and light can be hypnotic, and gazing at them can allow our minds to rest. Seek, appreciate and celebrate the light!

7.  Sunset and Star Gazing

Consider turning off all the lights in your house as darkness approaches, dress warmly, take a blanket outside, light a fire if you have an area where that is permissible, and watch the sunset. Do some stargazing and then turn in early for the night!