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Solstice
Like Jerome
Kern’s ole man river that “j us’ keeps on rolin’ along,” old man sun
just keeps on running its successive journeys across the sky east to
west, day in and day out, from winter through spring to summer and
then through fall and back again to winter, so on and so forth.
Now, in this
circadian rhythm there is, as we all have been taught, a winter
solstice and a summer solstice with points in between which
observers of such natural phenomena have named the vernal equinox
and the autumnal equinox, spring and fall. Of all these observable
events, none is quite as portentous as the winter solstice. ‘Which
at last gets me somewhat closer to a point which is loosely lodged
in my little mind. We’re not there yet, to be sure, but we’re moving
on.
Solstice means
literally sun standstill. It is a stage in the sun’s apparent
movement in which the days in the winter stop getting shorter and
begin again to get longer and conversely, of course, in which the
nights stop getting longer and begin again to start getting shorter.
The winter solstice is reached each year in the northern hemisphere
about December 22, while the summer solstice occurs about June 22.
All around the
world ancient observers marked the solstices carefully and with
astounding accuracy. Anasazi, Olmecs, Mayans, Aztecs, Incas,
Babylonians, Chinese, Greeks, Persians, and Romans all seem to have
found special ways to mark the winter solstice with celebrations.
The early
inhabitants of the smallish island that was to become known as
England seem to have been particularly cognizant of the winter
solstice. Far more than their southern European neighbors in Greece,
Italy, and Spain, those early Anglos focused on December 25 as a
time for special celebration. The long winter nights were begin-
fling to be gradually shortened and the days began to grow gradually
a little longer. Darkness began to be overcome by light. Cold began
to give way to the sun’s welcome warmth. Accordingly the solstice
was celebrated with bonfires, merrymaking, feasts, and non-lite
versions of mead. The festivities were apparently not unlike those
of other cultures around the world.
As Christianity
spread, the formerly pagan celebrations related to the winter
solstice came to be gradually appropriated as a natural occasion for
celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Within a few hundred years
after his advent, there was absolutely no consensus as to the actual
date of Jesus’ birth. Wide, and often wild, speculations about the
date went on for many decades. Finally, however, the rather
arbitrary date of December 25 came to be generally accepted as a
good time to mark the anniversary of his birth.
Because it was
tied so closely to the time of the winter solstice, there was
general satisfaction about the timing; and the old customs and
policies and practices gradually segued into today’s Christmas
celebrations.
Our Christian
beliefs related to Mary and Joseph, the incarnation, the actual
birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, the shepherds keeping watch over their
flocks by night, the guiding star and the visit of the wise men with
their gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh for the new born baby
Jesus were all melded into the winter solstice celebrations which
were already in place. Old pagan festivities marked by feasting,
lighted candles, the giving of gifts, singing, decorated evergreen
trees, yule logs, and rejoicing were all assimilated into our
Christian celebrations related to the birth of Jesus Christ.
Why not?
Our great and
good God who kindled the fire in the sun, who tilted the earth on
its axis, who started it to spinning, and who ordained its orbit
around the sun is the same great and good God whose redeeming grace
in the fullness of time manifested itself in the incarnation, a baby
in a manger.
In celebrating
Christmas, there is a good reason to be still a while and ponder the
wonders related to the natural phenomenon of the winter solstice.
Christians can not only affirm but also celebrate the astronomy,
mathematics, science, and all the impressive learning that explains
the solstices. The Encyclopedia Britannica elucidates the matter:
“Each solstice is upon the ecliptic midway between the equinoxes and
therefore 90 degrees from each” and my Merriam Webster’s Collegiate
Dictionary Tenth Edition further obfuscates the subject by defining
solstice as “either of the points on the ecliptic at which its
distance from the eclestial equator is greatest and which is reached
by the sun each year about June 22nd and December 22nd.”
Well, DUH. I
really didn’t want to know that much about the solstices. Still,
without benefit of a graduate degree in astronomy, we can celebrate
the handiwork of God in fixing the solstices as he has done; and we
can celebrate the hard work of scientists in trying to help us
understand the general workings of the system.
At this special
season, then, consider a couple of closing thoughts.
Celebrate the
solstice. It’s Creator has given humanity a fantastic gift. To this
gift we have attached all manner of accouterments and appendages
which we do not necessarily have to reject or even complain about
and, indeed, to which we may rightly say a joyous YES: Christmas
trees, colored lights, fruitcakes, fireworks, roast turkeys and
figgy puddings, peppermint candy, roaring fires, and Santa’s
ubiquitous Ho-Ho-Hos.
Focus on the
incarnation of God in Christ Jesus. In Christ Jesus, God means to be
reconciling the world to himself. Dayspring from on high has visited
us. Humanity itself has been touched with a miracle. It is the
miracle of redemption, of new heavens and a new earth. So, at this
solstice season, “Remember Jesus Christ” and mind him.
Merry Christmas.
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