Today is the winter solstice, the day when the plane of the earth’s orbit around the sun reaches its southernmost intersection with the earth. Tomorrow, the duration of sunshine will be slightly longer, seed companies will begin to plan the spring catalog mailout, migratory birds will begin stacking-up calories for the long flight north.
If you hear it remarked at all, it will probably be during a weather broadcast, and possibly not even then. Who cares? After all, we’ve got chicken-to-go and humankind no longer watches the sky and the stars and anxiously awaits freshening fields and the return of game. This shortest day of sunshine was once a matter of great importance, though, and ancient societies spent huge amounts of treasure and labor and time to know precisely when the solstice had occurred.
No Southern Baptist yahoo will ever admit it, but Christmas originated as a solstice observance — just one of dozens of pagan celebrations of this most important day. It is not Jesus’ birthday; that is a tale that was made-up long after the crucifixion. Many other religions observe this day, too.
So … whatever tradition you observe, or if you observe no tradition at all, Happy Solstice! to you.