Tonight is the Winter Solstice, the longest night of the year and the shortest day. In the part of the world I live in, it's dark before four p.m.. For all human cultures, this night is significant in one way or another. Most of them involve fire or light or prayers to both hold off any evil that might be about but also to profess that we believe the sun will come back to us and that the world is not ending. Evil is, of course, a human concept and this night is no more prone to evil doing than any other. In our primitive pasts, this was a night to fear - that this time, the sun would not return and life would be impossible.
I don't believe in a god, or in an afterlife but I delight in the patterns the natural world creates and the way our existence as living things is tied to them. The winter solstice has always been a time of reflection, and of faith - the hope that the light will return and the recognition of the dark nights we've faced in our hearts. It's also a time of celebration for while the darkness may be triumphant on this night it also marks the turning point of the earth and the return of the light.
For me, this night is always one of reflection and solitude - and of candles! I enjoy the sense of quiet that I feel on the solstice, and often take walks late at night. It's certainly a good night for meditation on the events of the past year and the hopes for the next.
I plan to do some meditation with a candle, as part of my goal to get more in the habit of regular meditation.
What do other people do on the winter solstice?
