Like a cup of hot lemon, light in December is pale, almost watery. And there are hours less sun than at summer’s height. The days are grey and pitch black before dinner is even on the table. It can feel bleak. As we reach the apex of darkness at the Winter Solstice, the light begins to return. But if you suffer from the winter blues, the holidays can be rough.

If you miss a departed loved one, or you’re struggling with illness, or 2022 has been a rough year, or you’re just a natural Scrooge, I feel you. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) hit me hard this year. I won’t lie. I’ve wrestled with a low mood.

But it’s a “both/and” situation. I dread forced holiday cheer, but it’s also magical how we mortals put up a brave front, drag out our Christmas trees, cover them with lights, bake cookies, and join our fellow humans in celebration.

Photo credit: charliebomber on VisualHunt

Cure for the Winter Blues

My sister lives in rural Ohio and also suffers from SAD. But she celebrates Christmas like an out-of-work Santa’s elf. Lights. Three small trees. Swags of pine. Handmade decorations. She’s doing all that in between sitting under a full spectrum light with a box of tissues. When I called her to commiserate, she offered this wisdom.

“Haul out the holly,” Cathy said. Sung by Angela Lansbury in the musical “Mame,” “Haul out the Holly” is a winner. Johnny Mathis also sings a version. Both are on YouTube. Cathy sent me the links and as I watched I dug deep and found my holiday cheer. I also pulled out the ornaments and decorated the tree.

There is real treasure to be found in the dark. Instead of pushing it away, I’ve learned to embrace it. During the lead up to the darkest night of the year, the Winter Solstice, I turn off all the lights and sit in front of the fire with some glowing candles and marinate in darkness and silence. Celebrating utter darkness creates space for its opposite.

Sun Stand Still

The word solstice comes from the Latin sol “sun” and sistere “to stand still.” So, loosely translated, it means “sun stand still.” Oddly, according to the Farmer’s Almanac, for a few days before and after December 21, the sun’s path across the sky appears to freeze. At noon the elevation change is so slight that its path appears to stand still.

At the Solstice, the sun’s path reaches its most southerly point in the sky. It is as low in the sky as it can get—even at high noon, the Farmer’s Almanac says. In the Southern Hemisphere, it’s the opposite. They get summer. We get winter, or the “astronomical” start of it. The “meteorological” beginning of winter is December 1 in the Northern Hemisphere. Who knew?

So, the darkest night marks the return of the light. The sun will grow stronger and brighter beginning at 4:47 p.m. December 21, until it culminates on June 21^st in the longest day of the year. It’s a fulcrum, a seasonal cycle, a natural miracle.

Ancient Wisdom

The ancients of many cultures realized these times of astronomical shift were powerful. They built great stone structures like Newgrange or Stonehenge and created precisely aligned openings in underground caves to allow the sun’s rays to align with sacred symbols. I saw one of these, a Mayan ruin, an hour’s drive outside of Cuernavaca, Mexico where the light focused precisely through a wooden opening. It blew my mind! Celebrating the sun’s power lives deep in our DNA.

We human animals innately sense that winter means it’s time to huddle together for warmth, to eat whatever surplus we’ve gathered to stave off lean times, and to celebrate the return of the light. For us, that translates into festivals in December (Christmas, Yule, Hannukah, Kwanza) where candles play a major role, or to parties where food and drink are abundant.

We’ve evolved from figgy pudding in the old English tradition to See’s chocolate-covered toffee brittle.

Let’s honor the return of the light at the Solstice, along with our human-made traditions, knowing that cycles of nature deserve our praise and celebration just as much as our chosen holidays. My gift to you: a recipe for figgy pudding https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/229863/figgy-pudding/. Enjoy!

A slightly different version of this post originally appeared in the Rossmoor News.

Photo credit: <a href=”https://visualhunt.co/a7/df859c13″>charliebomber</a> on <a href=”https://visualhunt.com/re10/3a810622″>VisualHunt</a>