Solstice Celebrations

Our prehistoric cultural past is pretty much closed to us, at least in terms of the physical and mental sensations of what it was like to be human in the days before civilization. Who knows what fears and joy went through the hearts of our ancestors as they tended their herds or hunted game or defended themselves from predators? Our modern fears may not be the same as our forebears, but they are nonetheless real.

So every year about the time of the winter solstice, as we make our way to and from work in the dark; when the sun seems pale and beaten during the day; when what the scientists now call Seasonal Affective Disorder or just a case of the glooms infects us; we understand what happened in the past. At the time of the winter solstice, at the shortest day of the year, you gotta party.

So in case you are wondering what the fuss is all about, when the peoples of the world who all hate each other and battle endlessly for supremacy over one another still stop at the winter solstice to celebrate religious holidays: it's because we are all the same race, like it or not, and the dark still frightens us.

Solstice Celebrations

Here's a few ways we humans like to lighten our dark days, past and present:

• Bodhi Day Buddhist
• Christmas Christian
• Dong Zhi China
• Hanukkah Jewish
• Mithras Persia
• Ramadan Muslim
• Saturnalia Roman Empire
• Yalda Persia
• Yule Iceland

This photo is of a snowy path in Harlow, England and was taken by Paul Burland