The winter solstice is here, December 21, 2025. It’s what I like to call the long winter’s night. The nadir of the natural world. I once read, to paraphrase, that it’s the ending, the death, of the cycle of life.
Celebrating solstices is among the oldest traditions and rituals known to humans, along with storytelling (the great sagas, etc.) and burying the dead. This is the time to consider what is lost with winter’s bitter chill and what is promised by far away spring.
The ancient peoples reacted to the ending by singing and dancing, beating back the dark with drums and noise makers, with hanging evergreens, building bonfires, feasting, and keeping candlelight burning all night long. They attempted to hang on and stop the inevitable – the proverbial long night of the soul. If we listen closely the echo of our ancestors is still there.
The nadir, our depths, are calling us to listen, to quiet the mind, to welcome the cold, and to hang on to squint into the sun of the impending new year. The last gasp of the old year is celebrating what is already gone.
This is a time of expulsion and welcoming
It is no longer celebrated as it once was – as the beginning of a period of descent and rest, of going within our homes, within ourselves and taking in all that we have been through, all that has passed in this full year which is coming to a close. We have a glimpse in the maudlin words of Robert Burns Auld Lang Syne, which begs us to hold onto and remember the past. What is forgotten is that hibernation in nature and in the animal kingdom is surrounding us as a reminder of the cycle of life and the necessary gestational period. This time is so necessary for our tired limbs and our burdened minds.
Our modern culture teaches avoidance not unlike the ancients. Through excesses – alcohol, lights, shopping, overworking, overspending, gorging on comfort food and consumerism, are we without conscious thought attempting what they were?
Many of us feel the collective tug to go inward as nearly all creatures are doing this time of year. As the weather turns, people are left feeling that winter is hard because for those among us without burning fires and big festive families, it can be lonely and isolating.
Maybe a re-framing is in order.
Winter is actually kind in that it points us into the quiet soft way towards our inner selves, toward this annual time of peace and reflection, embracing the short dark days and the darkness we must navigate within. And forgiving, accepting, and loving embracing the inevitable goodbye of the past year.
Winter takes away the distractions, the buzz, and presents us with the perfect time to rest and withdraw into a womb like love, bringing fire and light to our hearths of our mother’s embrace. We pause like the sun does.
The word solstice is derived from Latin, combining sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still). It means literally the sun stands still as it does for several days around each solstice before changing direction. Instead of continuing to the oblivion of total darkness forever, we will go back toward the light. In that there is resilient hope.
We can pause like the sun does for the longest day in summer and the darkest day where we can go within ourselves for a rebirth into the new year. Winter is our gestation and spring is our rebirth. Like a seed planted deep in the earth, we will rise with renewed energy once again to dance in the sunlight.
Enjoy your long winter’s night everyone. How will you be honoring tradition, embracing introspection, and welcoming renewal?
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