It was about seven hours ago, and I meant to schedule a post to publish at the exact time, but life got in the way.

As has become somewhat traditional here at HaT, here’s a traditionally seasonal shot of Stonehenge (solstice at Stonehenge – not yet crossed off my bucket list).

Kieran Doherty / Reuters | A snowball fight marks the 2010 winter solstice at Stonehenge

Right now it’s 3 days until Christmas, it’s the second night of Hanukkah, and no doubt several other religious/cultural celebrations I’m not aware of are happening/pending/just passed right now – most of them aren’t the principal festival of their religion/culture (Christmas was not at all the principal festival of Christianity until relatively recently (and so far as theologians are concerned still is not)) but they’re part of what is celebrated at this time of year in the Northern Hemisphere, where the solstice clearly indicates the turning point of longer days and the looming promise of spring – here in the Southern Hemisphere we haven’t reached the hottest part of the year yet (particularly in this La Nina year) so it’s not so keenly felt.

tl;dr

Whatever your cultural/religious/astronomical orientation, may the turning of the calendar lead only to better things for you.

Categories: history, religion

Tags: astronomy, family, ritual, solstice, traditions