What is the winter solstice?
On the winter solstice on December 21st (Tuesday next), the sun travels its shortest path through the sky giving us the longest night and shortest day of the year. The solstice marks the gradual lengthening of days. Hallelujah.
What’s to celebrate?
"The winter solstice is about celebrating the return of the light after a time of increasing darkness," says Kerry-based druid, Jan Tetteroo of the Grove of Anu. We're all craving a bit of Vitamin D this time of year. Our neolithic ancestors must have felt it big time – wandering around in the ever increasing darkness, long before LEDs, high tech fleeces and retrofit grants, they probably wondered if the sun would ever come back. It's no wonder a chink more light in the day was a big deal. Newgrange is a great big monument to it.
What’s this got to do with our obsession with property TV shows?
Newgrange is the original Home of the Year – a 5000-year-old structure with a fancy rooflight specifically designed to channel sunlight along a hallway to illuminate the main room at sunrise every year on the winter solstice. You heard right – an architectural feature designed for one day of the year. It doesn’t get any fancier than that.
That's amazing.
It is. And you too can celebrate the solstice in your home. With a big squeeze on labour and materials right now, installing your own solstice rooflight, sun tube or Velux may have to wait. But don’t worry, doing something simpler to mark the day can be just as meaningful.
What do I need?
“You could build a winter solstice altar – a small table and put some yellow or golden candles on it to light the night,” says Tetteroo. “Get some pine cones and some sprigs of holly and fir and make some decorations, similar to Christmas decorations but a bit more the Pagan kind,” he says. Then what? “On the night of the solstice during our ceremony, we dim all the lights and sitting in the darkness we give the youngest in the family or the group a candle. The youngest represents the sun god and lights the candles of everyone present. After that, we celebrate by candlelight. We sit together and share nice food and mulled drinks and sing some songs, celebrating that we have reached the turning point of the year.” If congregating isn’t an option, you could join Tetteroo’s online druid ritual.
So it’s a pretty significant time?
The people who lived here 5000 years ago thought so, says Tetteroo. Solar symbolism is writ large in their monuments which dot the countryside. “The people who brought Christianity to the world must have thought the solstice was important too because just a few days later, they celebrate the birth of their king. They knew how important the solstice was to the people.”
Slow down
The solstice is a time to “go within” too, says Tetteroo. “We slow down for 10 to 14 days after the solstice. The world can wait for a while.” It’s a time to take stock. “It’s a good time to check what you have achieved and to go forward with what you want to achieve in the new cycle. It’s the perfect time to make a manifestation list for the coming 12 months. It’s an optimistic time, it’s a rebirth, it’s the start of a new cycle.” Take extra care of your physical being too, he says. “Eat some citrus fruits to welcome the solstice and protect your body from the common cold.”
Anything else?
The solstice is a time to think of those on hard journeys. “One very special Irish tradition that continues is to light candles for Mary, Joseph and the young child. You see it regularly, especially in Irish farm houses in Cork and Kerry with three windows above. It shows you are welcoming those on a journey on the darkest night of the year.”
