By KAREN MADORIN
I can’t imagine living in early times without scientific knowledge regarding the year’s shortest day and longest night, aka winter solstice. Before easy access to candles, kerosene, and electricity, this was a worrisome season. Little besides faith the sun would return comforted the ancients through increasingly long nights.
The word solstice itself comes from the Latin solstitium. Sol meant sun and stitium--stoppage. According to the Family Education Network on the Internet, the winter solstice occurs either December 21 or 22. For several days before the solstices and for several days after, it appears that time stands still. In a world bombarded with more information than it can process, it oddly reassures me to imagine, that for a moment, the sun momentarily stands in place each June and December.
It must have comforted our ancestors also. Anthropologists have found evidence that many early societies developed means to mark equinoxes and solstices. Stonehenge is one well-known example. In North America, some experts theorize Native American medicine wheels peppering our landscape may have served a similar purpose. Though I don’t recommend building a Stonehenge or a medicine wheel in the backyard, much can be said for beginning one’s day before the sun rises and making time to watch those first rays break the horizon.
Kansans have experienced some spectacular sunrises since Thanksgiving. One morning it appeared that fingers of crimson fire tore away the darkness. Other mornings reveal themselves in pastel hues gently probing their way into the eastern sky. Making a point of spending time watching sunrises and taking note of when it happens puts life in perspective. I find myself hating to sleep in. I don’t want to miss what my dad called the crack o’ dawn or the day’s shifting shadows.
In the same vein, I find it soothing to note when the sun sets on this prairie landscape. Painters, photographers, and poets recognize and celebrate the power a fiery sunset or a rosy orb gradually fading into violet darkness holds over viewers. Keeping track of evolving shadows dropping into the West connects humans to forgotten rhythms.
For those who don’t want to or can’t watch the sun rise and set, computers make it easy to track earth’s rhythms. Anyone can note sunrise and sunset times on weather pages or by installing Weather Bug on a computer.
Solstices mark a reminding, a remembering of rhythms hearts know but minds forget. They remind us to believe in rebirth. They develop faith in the unknown. They tell us darkness will descend and lengthen, but, given time and patience, longer daylight will return.
It is not a coincidence we choose to celebrate religious and secular holidays with displays of light during this dark time of year. The beckoning warmth of Christmas lights and electric candles on windowsills reminds humanity that light overcomes darkness. Stop and be still, especially at sunrise and sunset, to mark this year’s winter solstice in Hays, KS, at 3:20 a.m., December 21. Remind yourself you come from a long line of ancestors who’ve shared this experience and been blessed to celebrate nature’s rhythms.