WHY IS A SOLSTICE SO IMPORTANT?

Today, we mistakenly believe in our dominion over nature. But this confidence is a very new phenomenon. The great stone monuments that survive to this day bear testament to a deep anxiety in the relationship of man to his environment and provides proof that humanity did not take its existence so much for granted.

Predicting the winter solstice was of great importance. Why? Because our ancestors saw the nights of winter lengthening and, as precious daytime dwindled, so was lost the light and warmth to grow food. What if this process was irreversible so the sun disappeared forever? Rather than be helpless victims of their fate, people would take matters into their own hands by making sacrifices of precious food, possibly even human life, to propitiate their gods. But timing is everything, hence having the mechanism to predict the dates of solstice was critical; although Stonehenge was aligned with the summer solstice, many other sites were constructed to divine the shortest day. On the winter solstice all effort was expended to ensure the next day would be slightly longer, turning the tide of creeping darkness.

The tribes of Britain that came later, whether ‘Celtic’ or Anglo-Saxon, were no different in recognising the significance of the solstice. The British celebrated them as fire festivals and the Germanic settlers brought their own geol (yule) and middsumer or litha celebrations. Deep into the middle ages people lit bonnefyres or good fires of ‘clean’ wood on midsummer eve and burnt the yule log to mark midwinter.

Maybe it is hubris that climate change and dire weather now reminds us that perhaps our ancestors had humanity’s place correctly entered in the scheme of things, all along? Or do we have to discover the importance of the solstice as a way of regaining humility in front of the created world?