Winter Solstice — A Day of Hope
Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” — Edith Sitwell
Thursday, Dec. 21, 2023, marks the day of the winter solstice, which is also the official start of winter in the US.
As a first-generation immigrant living here, it initially made little sense to me. I had been braving the cold since mid-October, and yet, winter was only just beginning. It felt as though those months of cold did not count.
But for me, the winter solstice is not the start but the end of winter.
The idea that winter starts on the day of the winter solstice is tied to the fact that the coldest days and months are still ahead. For some, it signifies the need to brace for visits from the polar express, blizzards, ice storms, and a twenty-day stretch of fog.
Besides gloom and doom of weather ahead, the arrival of the winter solstice is a hopeful day for me. It is an important psychological landmark that from this day on, daylight WILL NOT BE GETTING ANY SHORTER. I could not have said it any louder.
From this day forward, the length of daylight will creep upward by a few minutes a day initially, and then, at an ever-accelerating pace. About forty days from now by the end of January the length of daylight will be forty-nine minutes longer. For me, the prospect of longer days is a much more cheerful thought and holds the strength to overcome the negativity of coldest days being still ahead of us.
Winter solstice is a symbol that the worst is over. It symbolizes that darkness hit bottom and although the journey to the surface would be slow, and a sense of the comfort of days with longer duration of daylight will take a while to set in, life is now moving in the correct direction.
The winter solstice also brings with it the promise of another spring down the road, and universe willing, I will be around to enjoy the freedom of summer once again.
It is not that I do not like winter. I do. Winter is a wonderful time for introspection. It is a time when by the time December 21 arrives, the sun is already setting behind the bare trees by 5 pm and as the darkness sets in, it feels like I am safe inside the cocoon and the safety our home has to offer.
There may still be three more months of winter, and I may have to shovel snow, a task I’m not particularly fond of, but on the winter solstice, I know that each day will bring additional minutes of daylight. That thought alone is enough moral support to get me through the next three months of colder temperatures, gray days, and snow.
I hope you do not think I am odd for suggesting that today, rather than marking the start of winter, symbolizes its end. But if I do come across as such, I hope that somewhere in your mind, you can appreciate the psychological significance of the winter solstice and relate to my feelings.
Winter solstice is the day when being in the depths of darkness the only way forward is towards more light. For what more one can hope?
Ciao.
