It's the day when the days start getting longer again. Up here in the Pacific Northwest, that event has a meaning that it might not have in more southerly climes. Up here, where the days are about seven and a half hours long in late December, the return of longer days is something to look forward to. In England, which is even further north than Seattle, they have been watching for the solstice since the Bronze Age. They stuck big rocks all over the island to mark that day, like this one called Long Meg, near Carlisle:
Caption: Long Meg stone is sandstone, but the daughters are porphyritic granite. Long Meg is 20 metres or so from the main circle and at the winter solstice, from the keystone in the circle, the sun is seen to set in the groove on the top of Long Meg.
As I've
written before just about every major religion that originated in the Northern Hemisphere celebrates the solstice in one way or another. However you're celebrating it, have a good one.
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