Winter solstice

The Winter Solstice - the shortest day, the longest night - is celebrated pretty much everywhere by everyone, currently (by us) as Christmas. For those of us to try to be more in touch with the seasons, it seems significant to observe this change in direction of the day length, separately from all the Christmas holiday stuff. But as I've been reading about traditional, pre-Christian observations of the winter solistice, boy it all sounds just like what we are doing anyway for the Christmas; feasting, candles, fires, gifts, singing, evergreens and holly, hospitality and sharing.

An interesting thing I did learn was about "cross quarters" and how the old celts counted the seasons. Besides the summer and winter solistices and spring and fall equinoxes, half way between each of these was another holiday. February 1 was Imbolc (now Ground Hog Day), May 1 was Beltane (now May day), August 1 was Ludgnasa (now just echoed in State and County fairs), November 1 was Samhain (Halloween), and these days were the actual divisions between the seasons. So summer began on May 1, and ended on August 1, leaving the summer solstice in the middle of summer. Which is how it came to be called midsummer night's eve, and makes more sense in many ways since it gets pretty summery so long before the June 21.