The Reason For The Season

It's that time of year again ... our day-to-day business takes on a lower priority as we bundle up and enjoy more time with friends and family. Virtually all of us celebrate this time of year, whether it's communing with friends and family and/or participating in religious observances such as Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Yalda, Saturnalia, Karachun, and countless other traditions. Why do so many of us -- and so many of these diverse traditions -- all celebrate in late December? Looking deeper and farther back reveals the real "Reason for the Season" -- the Winter Solstice.

Before Jesus, Mohammed, Zoroaster, Buddha, Mithra, before Paganism, before religion itself, before we humans even evolved into our present state, we were fully connected with nature and we marked the passage of time with the sun, the moon, and the seasons. We observed that time moves in a cycle which repeats itself after about 365 sunrises and sunsets. Throughout this cycle, the sun spends less and less time in the sky until a particular moment when the sun stops making its daily visit briefer and briefer, and starts staying visible a little bit more every day. This special moment -- what we now call the Winter Solstice -- is certainly a joyous time to anticipate, because more and more light returns to every day, the weather gets warmer, and the nourishing crops take root once again. It's the annual promise that spring -- and summer -- are coming around again. Now that's something to celebrate!

As we humans multiplied and created diverse cultures and religions, it was a practical matter to "co-opt" the existing awareness and celebration of the Winter Solstice and place seminal mythologies around this time. Hence the Winter Solstice being the original "Reason for the Season."

On this Winter Solstice, which is also the shortest day and longest night of the year and the first day of winter in the northern hemisphere, join me in imagining how our ancestors observed this time. Imagine the awe and respect they had for the earth and the sun and their awareness of the interconnectedness and interdependencies of all living things and the cosmos.

Our human family has come a long, long way, and the Winter Solstice will be forever linked to our existence. It is an observance that binds us with the very cycle of life.

Winter Solstice Greetings to all!