Solstice means...standing-still-sun
Such precision we have about it now! Winter solstice is when…
…because of the earth’s tilt, your hemisphere is leaning farthest away from the sun, and therefore:
The daylight is the shortest.
The sun has its lowest arc in the sky.
| Many, many cultures the world over perform solstice ceremonies. At their root: an ancient fear that the failing light would never return unless humans intervened with anxious vigil or antic celebration. |
Solstice celebrations: universal & perhaps much older than we know. |
| An utterly astounding array of ancient cultures built their greatest architectures — tombs, temples, cairns and sacred observatories — so that they aligned with the solstices and equinoxes. Many of us know that Stonehenge is a perfect marker of both solstices. |  |
 |
But not so many people are familiar with Newgrange, a beautiful megalithic site in Ireland. This huge circular stone structure is estimated to be 5,000 years old, older by centuries than Stonehenge, older than the Egyptian pyramids! It was built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at dawn on winter solstice. |
A linguistic puzzle.
Christmas was transplanted onto winter solstice some 1,600 years ago, centuries before the English language emerged from its Germanic roots. Is that why we came to express these two ideas in words that sound so similar?
