Winter Solstice | Photo by NASA
Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021, will be the shortest day and longest night of the year and the official start of winter. The winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere occurs in December each year when the Earth’s north pole is the furthest from the sun.
Ohio will have only six hours of daylight. But after the solstice, the Earth begins its slow movement back towards the sun, so the days will be getting longer little by little until the summer solstice in June.
Solstice celebrations
Although the dominant winter holiday in contemporary times is Christmas, many cultures have celebrated the winter solstice for centuries. Many of these ancient holidays have complex and sometimes murky histories, especially since many have been combined and co-opted into the modern holiday of Christmas.
Many of them are still practiced in some form today either by traditionalists or by neopagan groups. Here are a few that you may have heard of.
Yule
Although the word has been adopted into the Christmas tradition, Yule is an ancient pagan winter solstice holiday celebrated by people in Central Europe and Scandinavia.
festivities included feasting, drinking, singing and animal sacrifice. Today, some people use a Yule log as a part of contemporary winter holiday celebrations.
Sol Invictus
In the Roman Empire, Sol Invictus was the sun god and patron god of the empire. His birth was celebrated during the winter solstice, specifically on Dec. 25. This tradition mirrors some part of Christian Christmas and is the source of the contemporary Christmas date.
Saturnalia
The ancient Greeks celebrated the god Saturn during the winter solstice to mark the end of the planting season. Saturnalia included gift-giving, festivals, games and banquets. Many normal social rules were ignored during the festivities: slaves were not forced to work for their masters, gambling was permitted and a commoner was crowned king for a day.
