Winter Solstice

"Yule is when the dark half of the year relinquishes to the light half. Starting the next morning at sunrise, the sun climbs just a little higher and stays a little longer in the sky each day. Known as Solstice Night, or the longest night of the year, much celebration was to be had as the ancestors awaited the rebirth of the Oak King, the Sun King, the Giver of Life that warmed the frozen Earth and made her to bear forth from seeds protected through the fall and winter in her womb. Bonfires were lit in the fields, and crops and trees were "wassailed" with toasts of spiced cider."-   Yule Lore 

White Cedars: Taken at Hilton Falls November 27, 2010

Winter Solstice...the darkest night of the shortest day brings hope for the return of the sun and its warmth. Without the Winter Solstice, would we continue on into infinite night? Perish the thought.

In some ways, I think December 21 is my favourite day of the year, for I know that each subsequent day will grow imperceptably, inexorably longer even as we face down a long, cold winter. Conversely, June 21 - Summer Solstice - the day that officially ushers in the lazy, crazy days of summer becomes a day of melancholy, for even as the sun grows warmer, each day is a little shorter than the one before it.

The cycle of life and death; warmth and cold; light and darkness....