Murray4x5

Hey all you northern hemispherers, it's getting close to the long awaited day when the c-c-c-cold nights of winter start getting shorter and the bright, life giving sun starts rising higher and the days start getting longer!

We'll celebrate by getting all our friends and their kids together for a big raucous Winter Solstice dinner party this weekend or the next.

What do you do to keep the ancient in your Christmas celebrations?

Murray

LaFemme

Well...the Christmas tree is a pagan symbol...so we will have that..I'm guessing a wreath is probably a non-christian symbol as well. The truth is aqlmost every christian symbol was pre-empted by the catholics to help spread christianity....the interesting thing is how instrumental women were in the early chirch and by about 250 AD they had been shoved back into the shadows again.

I'm a big fan of the history of the early church

AnthonyV

Happy solstice. Virtually all societies and religions have celebrated the transition of darkness of winter transitioning back into the light of days getting longer.

AmericanGirl

Happy almost Solstice!

I love Christmas and do it pretty much by the book, even though it's a secular holiday for me, so that includes all the random pagan aspects and the modern weird ones and also Jesus, even if he is a historical figure to me, not a religious one. I love some of the more popular new testament stories and at this time of year enjoy reflecting on them and the traditional story of Jesus' birth (even though it didn't happen in winter). I don't have a manger of my own but love the one at my parents' home (also atheist/agnostic). What can I say? Jesus is just alright with me.

topspin

AG,
" Jesus is just alright with me."


Your post reminded me of a favorite line in an old John Prine lyric from "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore":


"Jesus don't like killin', no matter what the reason's for"

....And your flag decal won't get you
into heaven, anymore.

houdini56

Happy solstice to you all, too!

I was really torn about going through the Christmas rituals this year, in large part because its only been in the last year or two that I've come to terms
with my discomfort with religion and finally been able to honestly identify myself as an agnostic/atheist/non-theist.

Anyway, I started reading more about solstice and I had some conversations with other atheists who still enjoy many of the traditional rituals, and so with a little shift in my perspective I'm feeling like celebrating again! In fact my solstice tree went up today and it's a beauty.

I've never been very knowledgeable about the origin of many rituals or traditions and its been really interesting to read about.

Another exciting thing upcoming is that we have meteor showers expected in the Pacific NW next week which somehow feels very fitting to the season.

Zencat

windysan

Happy Winter Event

nvrbeentospain

I think I've reached the point in my religious beliefs (or lack thereof) that I'm comfortable with traditional christmas celebrations and am actually excited about christmas this year. This is a change for me because christmas used to turn me into a grinch. Celebrating the solstice or saturnalia is great (and as we all know, we stole christmas from these celebrations anyway), but I'm doing christmas this year. Even though I'm not christian, I feel a complete right to celebrate it. It's historically been a secular holiday, so I'm claiming it.

LaFemme

Happy solstice AND lunar eclipse!

Murray4x5

We're going to watch it from the hot tub

Murray

gneiss

So last night there was a lunar eclipse and a meteor shower on the longest night of the year... and I fell asleep. LOL figures. My co-worker and I just switched to 12-hour shifts and since I'm the "rookie" it's his decision when to set shift change. So I work 4am-4pm because he's a duck hunter and he wanted to leave at 4. I'm sure it'll be fine once I get used to it. Until then I require large amounts of caffeine.

Murray4x5

It was beautiful. Made me wonder what it would be like to experience the event from the moon. To cast the moon in such a red light, the Earth must be encircled by ring of fiery sunset/sunrise light.

Murray