poliphilo | Happy Holidays

The Winter Solstice has been THE big seasonal festival in the Northern hemisphere since prehistoric times.

Stands to reason: This is when the sun starts coming back. Who wouldn't want to celebrate?

Very few of the trimmings of Christmas are specifically Christian. Fir trees, holly, mistletoe, fat beardy men in fur-coats, reindeer- not many of any of these were to be found in the neighbourhood of Bethlehem in the good old days of Caesar Augustus.

The early Church worked on the sound principle "if you can't beat 'em join 'em". Finding they couldn't stop people decking their halls with boughs of holly, the fathers co-opted the festival by declaring it the birthday of their own Sun-god.

Cool.

Come on in, Jesus, and meet the gang. The guy in the mask is Horus and that's Dionysus presiding over the punch-bowl and the Japanese lady in the shiny dress is Amaterasu.....

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I just love the Winter Solstice. One year when I was feeling particularly depressed, back when I was living in Seattle, I happened to go for a walk around Green Lake (3 miles on a paved path) just at sunset on the solstice. I focused on the fact that the days would now start to become longer, and it gave me comfort. It happened to be a Tuesday. So every Tuesday after that, at about the same time, I took that walk, and gradually I could see the difference in the light (that is, there was more and more), until, months later, it was actually *afternoon* on my walks. I loved that ritual.

What a brilliant thing to do!

Happy Holidays

Happy to you too!

Re: Happy to you too!