The December Solstice: Share Your Celebrations Here

[Perrie Juran]

December 22 is a Solstice Day in 2011

The December solstice will occur at 05:30 (or 5:30am) Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on December 22, 2011. It is also known as the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and the summer solstice in the southern hemisphere due to the seasonal differences.

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/december-solstice.html

Recognizing that SL is an International community I know all over the globe different nations and cultures celebrate different things around this year be it Xmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa, etc.

What and how do you celebrate where you live?  Maybe some pictures would be cool.  Let's all celebrate together!

[PeterCanessa Oh]

Now that's what I call an international message - well done that man.

My daughter loves the last three months of the year (in the UK) as we have Halloween (30th Oct), Guy Fawkes' Night (5th Nov), her birthday, Christmas (25th Dec) and New Year (31st Dec/1st Jan)

Christmas is so all-pervasive here there is no acknowledgement of other religions/cultures, unlike the 'happy holidays' of the USA.  As an example a supermarket chain is currently running TV ads with the Chris Rea song "driving home for Christmas' ... sung by a well-know Jewish singer!  No mention of Hannukkah what so ever.

Can't think of any Bhuddist festivals at this time of year, we just gatecrash everyone else's. (There are some around the world but they're more local/cultural than religious)

[Melita Magic]

Well it's a month away...wouldn't have to do with the Thanksgiving messages Americans are posting would it?

[Void Singer]

I celebrate lots of drinking

[Rage Riptide]

On that day I shal wake. I may even have toast.

[Randall Ahren]

Perrie, I think you're a bit early with this. My favorite celebration of the solstice in the northern hemisphere was a scene from the television program Northern Exposure. They marked the day of longest night in their community with this

:

Goethe’s final words: more light.

Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that’s been our unifying cry: more light.

Sunlight, torchlight, candlelight, neon, incandescent, light to banish the darkness from our caves, to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier’s Field, little tiny flashlight for those books we read under the covers when we’re supposed to be asleep, light is a metaphor.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet. Rage, rage against the dying of the light! Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom, lead thou me on. The night is dark and I am far from home, lead thou me on. Arise, shine, for thy light has come. Light is knowledge, light is life, light is light.

[Void Singer]

Light is a lie. It shows you only a little of what's hidden in the dark, and will blind you to the truth past it's borders. Use it, but do not rely upon it. There is a moment when all lights fail.

[Sy Beck]

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Void Singer wrote:

Light is a lie. It shows you only a little of what's hidden in the dark, and will blind you to the truth past it's borders. Use it, but do not rely upon it. There is a moment when all lights fail.

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We're talking the same thing here yeah...in vino veritas et al.

[Void Singer]

meh, that's not real alcohol... heck it's not even real beer, but rather the sort of water that makes yellow snow.

[Randall Ahren]

I had to research whether Goethe's last words were actually "more light" or "mehr licht" in German. It turns out what he actually said was "open the second shutter so that more light may come in." See this article,

Dylan Thomas had some pretty cool last words: "I’ve had 18 straight whiskeys. I think that’s the record". He's quoted in the monologue, in particular this passage "Rage, rage against the dying of the light".

The best last words of all IMHO are from Voltaire when he was asked to forswear Satan he replied "This is no time to make new enemies."

Yes, true, light isn't everything, especially if the light is a flame and you're the moth drawn to it.

[Sy Beck]

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Void Singer wrote:

meh, that's not real alcohol... heck it's not even real beer, but rather the sort of water that makes yellow snow.

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Yup, what we would call,"making love in a canoe" beer.

[Melita Magic]

Randall, I wonder if the account of Oscar Wilde's last words is true.

"Either that wallpaper goes, or I do."

I wonder what he'd have thought of message boards?