Today is Wednesday, December 21, 2011. We are at one of the most significant turning points of the year: solstice. Are you feeling it? This shortest day and longest night for the Northern Hemisphere is marked by the Sun’s ingress of Capricorn, which occurs overnight tonight or tomorrow morning, depending on your time zone. For the East Coast of the U.S., it occurs at 12:30 am Thursday.
Whether solstice, Yule, Christmas or Saturnalia, whether in ancient days or now, this time of year has held one of the most important and evocative holidays of the whole year. One might think that the summer solstice, with its long days and warmth, might have taken the most prominent position in our imaginations. But as much as we may love (even prefer) that time of year, now – the start of winter — is when the modern western world holds its biggest celebrations.
True, for the non-religious, Christmas has become a commercialized event far from its Christian roots, to say nothing of its even more ancient Pagan beginnings. (One could make a case for some likenesses to Saturnalia, the ancient Roman holiday of food, drink, revelry and gift-giving that honored Saturn – though the current extreme seems to have more to do with modern escapism than tradition at this point.)
Students of astrology understand that the Sun’s ingress of a cardinal sign indicates an initiation into a new season, and Capricorn is a cardinal sign. But it’s not even the sign that begins our zodiacal year – that’s Aries. Why then isn’t the spring equinox the time of the biggest, best, most-anticipated holidays? Can it get much better than the length of the days beginning to outweigh the nights? The start of the growing season with its “force that through the green fuse drives the flower” (to borrow from Dylan Thomas)?