The dark nights keep drawing in – but there is an end in sight.

The longest night of the year is honored by many traditions as a sacred time.

In the past, it’s been a night to gather ’round the fire, or set out candles to call back the Sun. This year 2015 (in the N. Hem), it’s on Sunday, the 21st of December at 6:03 PM EST.

Is this where the date for Christmas came from? The indigenous Europeans had already been celebrating the birth of the Sun for thousands of years.

Endings and Darkness:

In Latin, solstice means sun set still and Winter Solstice is the great stillness before the Sun’s strength builds, and days grow longer. It can be a time to rest and reflect. It’s the fruitful dark out of which new life can eventually emerge. In ancient times and for some today, the darkness itself is the spiritual cradle into which the Sun is reborn.

Father Time with his sickle appears briefly, and bids us farewell, before the newborn babe appears at New Years. Everything lies dormant in the silent night, a sacred time of rest before the awakening, and the slow build toward longer days.

Keeping the Faith:

This time of year is associated with light — string lights, sparklers and of course, candles.

There’s the advent wreath of the Christian faith and the all-night bonfire for the burning of the Yule log, a tradition with roots in Northern European pre-Christian times. The lights are reminders of the inner light, and hope for the return of sunny days.

The light of the Sun begins a new solar cycle at Winter Solstice. The rays shine into the dark, and nurture the newborn life there to be cultivated. And this is mirrored in nature, as the seeds are buried in the darkness of the Earth, to emerge once again with the life-giving rays of the Sun.

The Earth is tilted on its axis like a top, which astronomers figured out is at 23 degrees. The seasons are flip-flopped, with Winter Solstice coming in December for the Northern hemisphere and in June for the Southern hemisphere.

That’s why Australians are wearing jumpers in summer and swimsuits in winter, and our seasons are reversed. To avoid confusion, sometimes they’re called June and December solstice.

Whatever this means for you all, happy new beginnings!!