Let There Be Light

Hopefully, I won't offend anyone today when I wish them a merry solstice. People have been upset lately with Merry Christmas, which I tend to throw out as sort of a general good tidings thing, only to have people take it personally that I didn't also wish them a happy kwanza (no offense to those who celebrate it). Back to the point: yes, as my housemate pointed out to me while we were eating breakfast and watching sports centre at 6:45 this morning, today is the shortest day of the year (not that we could tell - in our little underground lair, it's dark enough to always be night time). We are at the one polar opposite (forgive the pun) of our astronomical trip around the sun.

In earlier generations (we're talking 30,000 years ago) Solstice was celebrated as the rebirth of the sun, after a long six months of diminishing light. It's interesting to learn that Christmas, or "Christ's Mass" (which is supposed to honour the birth of Christ) was chosen arbitrarily as December 25th when in fact, modern religious scholars have no real idea when his date of birth actually was (although some place it near the beginning of February). December was chosen, in part because it coincided with already existing celebrations for the solstice and the rebirth of the eternal sun. On the roman calendar, the solstice fell on december 25th instead of the 21st - making it a perfect choice. So there you go - Christmas time is not only a chance for us to reflect on humanity/goodwill/religion, etc, but directly connected to the fact that from here, it all gets brighter.

Happy Solstice! Take advantage of that extra time in the dark to cuddle up with a special someone under a big, warm, blanket, turn off the TV, and celebrate in your own horizontally creative way :D