The longest night

This is a special time of year … not because some are waging war on Christmas, not because some are once again trying to debunk the holiday with pagan myths, and certainly not because it's the biggest shopping season of the year. This time of year is special in a very fundamental way, and it might be worthwhile to reflect on why.

It's not a coincidence that all of those pagan holidays, as well as Christmas and Hannukah all occur right now, for in one way or another they share something very special in common, namely Light. For those of us living in the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice marks the shortest day, and the longest night of the year. It is the time when the Sun – as seen from the Earth – halts over the Tropic of Capricorn (23 deg. S 26 min. longitude) for three days at the end of its journey to the South. After the solstice, it will appear to travel north again, the days will get longer and the nights shorter until it reaches its apogee on June 21 (the longest day and shortest night of the year). For those of you who are keeping track and like to be exact, the solstice will occur today at 16:19 GMT (or 10:19 am for you in NYC, and 7:19 am for our California friends).

Yes, it's dark in northern climes at this time of year. For where I live near Stuttgart, Germany, the sun rose today at 8:13 am (local time) and set at 4:27 in the afternoon. That's not much chance for much light at all, and we have it good. My friend in Bergen, Norway won't experience the sunrise until 9:44 am (local time) and it will have gone down by 3:28 pm. Blink, and you might miss it.

These, of course, are merely the facts, the pure, astronomical, verifiable facts. It is simply darker for a lot longer that it is light at this time of year. What we all experience, though, is the stillness, perhaps the sadness, the wish to maybe withdraw and to reflect throughout those long, dark hours. We feel it today, if we allow ourselves to. And our parents, grandparents, and their parents and grandparents, and theirs and ever on, further back, felt it as well. The phenomenon is the same, to be sure. How we choose to deal with it is quite different than it once was.

This is not to say that how we deal with it is better. Nor am I implying that how it used to be dealt with should be our way. Then was then and now is now, but we should be aware that our experience today is the experience our forebears had so many, many years ago. It is what binds us together over time. It is something that we share, and sharing is (or should be) a big part of this time of year.