Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice is my favorite day of the year.  Sure other holidays are good, but there is only one day of the year where the days start getting longer again.  It means more daytime.  As a gardener, I cherish that.  It means Spring is coming.  A new start and a hope for a good year of fresh veggies and new flowers.  

It is one of the 2 days of the year where day-length reverses direction.  But who cares about the Summer Solstice?  When the days are long, a slight change doesn't really matter.  LOL!

Winter Solstice mattered more through history.  Cold short days mean you aren't growing food and you are seeing the supply dwindle slightly.  Will there be enough to last to the first new harvest?  I don't have to worry about that myself, I have grocery stores that collect food from around the world.  But fresh from the garden is always great.  

But it used to matter a lot.  It meant new food was going to start growing soon.  It meant the cold days would end.  To hunter cultures, it meant the migrating mammals would be arriving locally.  To herders, it meant there would be new calves/kids/piglets, so they could eat a few of the adults.

Not to get into religious matters, but a lot of religious holidays occurred a few days after the Winter Solstice because it took a few days to be sure the days were getting longer again.  And that was worth celebrating!  And whatever day after and for whatever reason is fine with me.

But for myself, I go to the original.  

Happy Winter Solstice!

Winter Solstice

I celebrate this day!  No I'm not a modern day Druid or anything, but this day means something to me.  I am just very practical about the day.  It is the shortest day of the year.  Tommorrow, the days will start getting longer.

The longer days will lead to gardening season.

The gardening season leads to fresh tomatoes, fresh bicolor corn, small seedless cucumbers, flat italian beans,  celery leaves and spicy greens to add to salads, fresh ripe melons, zucchini, and all the minor crops.

It leads to spring bulbs that I love walking among and admiring in my backyard.

It leads to some time standing out on the deck looking at the backyard and thinking what I will do to reclaim the far parts from brambles that have gotten a bit out-of-control the past 2 years since I had a few trees removed.

It leads to the cats enjoying the outside again and running around all crazy for the shear joy of running.

It leads to thoughts of projects that will be harder than I expect but worth it after all the effort.

AND (many of you will have to just tolerate me on this), it IS the ORIGINAL "Reason for the Season".  I don't say hat lightly.  Just that most ancient religious beliefs have oriented around the Winter Solstice.  It makes sense that "Hope Springs" when the days start to get longer and promise a new beginning.   

May There Be Peace on Earth, and Good Will to All.  :)

Mark

Winter Solstice

Darn, I missed it!  Well, I did notice it a couple of times during the day, but only when I was busy doing something else.  I suppose that doesn't matter.  It's not like I need to do anything that day, I just like it.  But I didn't get around to posting...

It means the days will be getting longer.  And even though it means it will be getting colder for 3 months, it means that gardening season starts again in a couple weeks.  Not the planting, but the seed ordering.  And even then, it will only be 4 weeks before I can plant the first seeds in flats under lights in the basement!  After that, it's not too long to transplanting the sprouts to individual cells and then outside.

I plan to plant a lot more flowers this year.  I spent 10 years focussing on perennials for the convenience of not replanting every year, but quite frankly, most of them aren't worth having.  So many perennials bloom for a week or two and then they're done for the year.  Some bloom most of the season (coneflowers, black-eyed susans, reblooming daylilies) and I'm keeping those.  Some make quite an impact with just a few plants (oriental lilies, stokes aster).  Some are for the foliage anyway (hostas).

So I've been growing more annuals the past few years.  The season-long blooming of 30 square feet of bright zinnias is worth the hour it takes to plant them outside.

Two such patches of different color zinnias,  one of marigolds, and one of vivid salvia will go a long way and cost less than one hosta.

But back to Winter Solstice.  I like the more natural holidays, the ones that occur for uncomplicated real reasons.  New Years Day,  Summer Solstice, Thankgiving, Winter Solstice...  Near Year's Day is as artificial as can be (because calendars are completely artificial), but I like it because that's the first day of the current calendar, and you might as well celebrate a new year starting.  Summer Solstice is OK as a natural event, but somehow the longest day of the year doesn't have the same meaning as the shortest day.  At Summer Solstice, I'm not noticing the change in day-length all that much.

Thanksgiving is close to the best holiday.  Coming from a long line of farmers and having a strong sense of agriculture through history, I appreciate the importance and relief of a good Fall harvest.  Especially those crops that don't keep well (it's eat it or lose it)!  Even with year-round fresh food in these modern times, a Winter grocery store tomato is NOT the same as an August tomato from the back yard.

But I personal like Winter Solstice for the historical agricultural reasons above.  Maybe (as an ancestor) the Fall Harvest was not what you hoped it would be, but the Winter Solstice is the promise and hope of a better year ahead.  Promise and hope can keep you going in April when you are down to your last moldy or shriveled potatoes, carrots, and apples.  And lucky to have those.

(site said the image was "free")

I suppose I should mention Ground Hog Day.  It's not an accident that it is halfway between the 1st day of Winter and the 1st day of Spring.  In olden days, it meant "we've made it halfway, we can get through the other half".   And there is even a reason for that celebration.  From what I've read (disclaimer clause), Winter weather warms up earlier in Europe, sometimes starting in early February.  For pre-calendar farmers there, the emergence of hibernating burrowing mammals (hedgehogs, marmots) was a good sign that it was the time to plant the earliest Spring crops.  However, if shadows were seen (meaning clear bright days, meaning still-cold weather) it was best to wait a couple of weeks.  When those Europeans arrived in NE North America (where the climate stayed colder longer being on the eastern side of a continent), they had to adjust the timing.  And they had to adjust the animal.

So instead of small hedgehogs who HAD to emerge earlier because they had smaller fat reserves (and who don't exist in NA), they went by the larger groundhogs (2 foot tall marmots like land-based beavers without a tail, for my European friends) who could afford to check outside conditions and retreat for more hibernation if required.

So, I'll add Groundhog Day to my list of "natural" holidays even though I don't think it was a very good guide for planting (sunny days occur rather randomly in NA Winters).  A good measure of Groundhog Day sense in NA is that nobody sends Groundhog Day cards to friends.  LOL!

And lastly?  I like these holidays because there isn't much theology involved in them.  Natural and calendar events just "are" and you don't have to worry about them.  I DO like that...  :)