{"id":4287,"date":"2005-12-21T10:15:39","date_gmt":"2005-12-21T14:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/formerlyknownas\/2005\/12\/21\/happy-winter-solstice\/"},"modified":"2011-08-05T14:54:18","modified_gmt":"2011-08-05T18:54:18","slug":"happy-winter-solstice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/2005\/12\/21\/happy-winter-solstice\/","title":{"rendered":"happy winter solstice!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

 <\/p>\n

The Winter Solstice has arrived. A time to re-light the candle of hope <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

and forgiveness for all. Click <\/font>here<\/font><\/em><\/a> for our collection of Solstice haiku <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

and senryu.<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n

<\/em><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

a candle <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

in every window — <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

strangers light our path<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

<\/font><\/font>dagosan<\/em><\/strong><\/font><\/a> <\/font> <\/font><\/em><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Our Solistice message<\/a> from last year — not surprisingly — still <\/font><\/p>\n

rings true:<\/font><\/p>\n

\n

Christmas was set at the end of December, in the Fourth <\/font>Century, in order <\/font>to <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

co-opt (or overcome) ancient Sun-Solstice celebrations [see, e.g<\/em>., <\/font><\/font>here<\/font><\/a>, <\/font><\/font>here<\/font><\/a>, <\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

and even <\/font>there<\/font><\/a>] , the Solstice<\/font> Story seems <\/font>well worth retelling. Universe <\/em><\/font>Today<\/em> <\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

has a good <\/font>summary<\/font><\/a> of the science and the lore, including this excerpt:<\/font><\/font><\/font><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n

\n

<\/font><\/font><\/p>\n

The season we call \u201cwinter\u201d begins on the Winter Solstice. The word <\/font>Solstice <\/font>means \u201csun still\u201d. <\/font><\/font>Because ancient peoples knew nothing of the earth\u2019s tilt, the southward <\/font>march <\/font>of the sun was a troubling time. There was fear that one day the <\/font><\/font>sun might continue <\/font>moving south until was lost entirely. Many cultures <\/font><\/font>conducted rituals to encourage <\/font>the sun to move north again and when it <\/font><\/font>did there were great celebrations. These <\/font>celebrations, regardless of culture, <\/font><\/font>all had a common theme that of rekindled light.<\/font><\/p>\n

\"starXmas\" Not surprising then that many of the traditions and customs of ancient <\/font>Solstice <\/font>celebrations have survived to the present day. Although we know <\/font><\/font>that <\/font>the sun will <\/font>begin moving north without any encouragement from humans, <\/font><\/font>we still use this time of <\/font>cold and darkness to celebrate the theme of rekindled <\/font><\/font>light. From the Hanukah Menorah, <\/font>to the Scandinavian Yule log, to the lights <\/font><\/font>of the Christmas tree, during this season we <\/font>seek to push back the darkness <\/font><\/font>with light. Although the forms have evolved over the <\/font>centuries, we <\/font><\/font>can still see the spirit of many of the old ways in our present day Solstice celebrations. still <\/font><\/font><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Winter Solstice has arrived. A time to re-light the candle of hope and forgiveness for all. Click here for our collection of Solstice haiku and senryu. a candle in every window — strangers light our path dagosan Our Solistice message from last year — not surprisingly — still rings true: Christmas was set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2926],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pre-06-2006"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kP1R-179","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4287"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12857,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4287\/revisions\/12857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/ethicalesq\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}