Happy Solstice to You!

For 10,000 years people have celebrated the time of year when the increasingly longer nights reach their peak and the sun returns to take back the night. December 22nd, 2011 (at 05:30 GMT), is the day in the northern hemisphere when our daylight begins to grow in length, and our nighttime hours wane. The date has been celebrated at different times in human history. In 46 BCE, Julius Caesar established December 25th as the day of the winter solstice of Europe. In our modern era, we now celebrate it on the exact date that our planet’s polar hemisphere is farthest away from the sun. In the northern hemisphere that means we celebrate it on December 21st, 22nd, or 23rd, depending on the year.

It’s a time to celebrate the return of the light. While the winter solstice has also been called “midwinter,” it is the day we signify as the first day of winter. Really, wouldn’t it make the most sense if we began our first day of the new year on the winter solstice?

We wish you the most joyous of days ahead of you! As you rejoice in your renewed connections with your family and friends this holiday season, I’d like to let you in on a secret: We’re all one big happy family, us humans.

This special time of year has been, and is still, celebrated in various ways by people all over Earth, including:
Amaterasu celebration, Requiem of the Dead (7th century Japan)
Beiwe Festival (Sámi of Northern Fennoscandia)
Brumalia (Roman Kingdom)
Chawmos (Kalash of Pakistan)
Christ’s Mass, Christmas, Natalis Domini (4th century Rome, 11th century England, Christian)
Deygān, Maidyarem (Zoroastrian)
Dōngzhì Festival (East Asian Cultural Sphere and Mahayana Buddhist)
Goru (Dogon of Mali)
Hanukkah (Judaism)
Hogmanay (Scotland)
Inti Raymi (Inca: Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador)
Junkanoo, John Canoe, Dzon’ku ‘Nu (West Africa, Bahamas, Jamaica, 19th-century North Carolina, Virginia)
Karachun (Ancient Western Slavic)
Koleda, Коляда, Sviatki, Dazh Boh (Ancient Eastern Slavic and Sarmatian)
Lá an Dreoilín, Wren day (Celtic, Irish, Welsh, Manx)
Lenæa (Ancient and Hellenistic Greece)
Lohri (India)
Lucia, St. Lucia (Swedish, Scandinavian)
Makara Sankranti, मकर संक्रान्ति (India and Nepal, Hindu)
Maruaroa o Takurua (New Zealand, Maori)
Meán Geimhridh, Celtic Midwinter (Celtic, Ancient Welsh, Neodruidic)
Midwinter (Antarctica)
Mōdraniht (Anglo-Saxon paganism)
Mummer’s Day, Montol (Celtic, Cornish)
Rozhanitsa Feast (12th century Eastern Slavic Russian)
Shab-e Chelleh, یلدا , Yaldā (2nd millennium BC Persian, Iranian)
Sanghamitta Day (Buddhist)
Saturnalia, Chronia (Ancient Greek, Roman Republic)
Şewy Yelda (Kurdish)
Sol Invictus Festival (3rd century Roman Empire)
Soyal (Zuni and Hopi of North America)
We Tripantu (Mapuche in southern Chile)
Yule (Germanic peoples)
Zagmuk, Sacaea (Ancient Mesopotamia, Sumerian, Babylonian)
Ziemassvētki (Latvian, Baltic, Romuva)

Still reading? Then I’ll let you in on another secret. It’s even secreter than the previous one above, and that is this: we’re not the only living organisms who notice the lengthening of daylight and have our behavior affected by it! Other animals notice, and birds notice, and insects notice, and plants notice, … truly, we are all nature. Rejoice!!