clumsygirl: art + craft + tomfoolery

The Yarn Harlot recently blogged about the holidays... which I'm reposting a bit of below. I thought it was interesting. I like the focus on the mid-winter shift towards the return of day light, the winter solstice. I find it interesting that a kazillion different cultures, beliefs and religions all celebrate at the same time of the year, some purposefully following older rites and celebrations, some not. I like the idea of so many different peoples celebrating at the same time. Warm up your winter, light a fire, eat some food, hug your neighbor, the light is coming back!

Happy Solstice, everyone.


"The Return Of The Light

These weeks are the darkest of the year for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, each day we have a little less light. Each day things are a little colder, the sun rises later, sets sooner and darkness overwhelmingly outweighs light, while it gets harder and harder to take a good blog picture of yarn on the front porch. (Maybe that one is just me.) For many of us, our moods head in the same direction.

Luckily, Northern humanity has figured out a way to get through:
Christmas. Solstice. Yule. Hannukah. Humanlight. Kwanzaa. Saint Lucia Day. Diwali. Yalda. Dong Zhi.

All over the world, people gather their loved ones together, light candles, decorate their homes, put up trees, share a meal or exchange gifts with each other and all of their celebrations have one thing in common. They are celebrating (among other fine miracles and beliefs) the return of the light. All of these holidays happen on or around the time of the solstice. The magic day that follows the longest night, when the planet swings far enough over and whether you can feel it or not....the days get longer. Sun wins over moon. The earth begins to warm and another long dark winter is on it's way out. (You may have noticed, what with February being what it is in Canada that this process is fairly gradual.) The balance shifts. "