Winter Solstice Signals the Return of Light

How did our distant ancestors (I'm not just thinking of the people who built Stonehenge) know when the shortest day of the year had arrived? This has always puzzled me. Maybe they used a bunch of rocks and a marker, with one rock each day placed to cast its shadow on the marker. Eventually, one rock would be the last in the series, the day of the solstice, and the one placed the day before it would have a second day casting a shadow on the marker. Seeing the change, our ancestors would have known the sun had reversed itself.

Just a theory.

Light ceremonies are a traditional winter solstice celebration in numerous cultures. This ceremony is being held at the Lantern Festival in Vancouver, BC.

Photo courtesy of ItzaFineDay.

Why was it important to them to know the shortest day of the year? I think for the same reason the solstice is important to we gardeners. Yes, we know winter ends and spring returns, we know dormant trees and shrubs wake as the sun rises higher every day. But we wait in suspense. When will spring come? For us the solstice marks the turn in the year that is a promise-- spring is on the way and soon the garden will green again.

People gather in Toronto, Canada, to relive a Winter Solstice celebration observed by many ancient cultures. Photo Courtesy of Matthew Burpee.

I watch the sunrise most days from a second floor window in my house. On the shortest of the year, the sun breaks the horizon almost south-west of my house. As the days grow longer, it moves northward until the summer solstice, the longest day of the year,  when it breaks the horizon in the morning due west of my house and tracks directly overhead by midday and touches the horizon at dusk due east. A long trajectory, a long day, the apogee of the growing season, when all plants feel the abundance of sunlight.

A family gathers to watch the sunrise on the Winter Solstice.

Photo courtesy of Matt Gibson.