Longest Night

Winter Solstice is tomorrow morning at 2:54 a.m. Pacific Time.  The Earth's tilt is the reason for the season.

This is from the Telegraph:

The winter solstice happens every year when the Sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees. In other words, when the North Pole is tilted furthest – 23.5 degrees – away from the Sun, delivering the fewest hours of sunlight of the year.

At Southminster (a name that kind of sounds like a place to go to ring out solstice bells) we will welcome the sun with a celebration to honor the dark at seven p.m. tonight, December 20th.

Lisa Loving, afternoon news director at 90.7 KBOO, talked with me about it on Monday's five pm news.  Here is that interview.  (It begins at 13:43 into the newscast).

Before Christmas was Winter Solstice. Our ancestors were star watchers, night gazers. They knew the darkness, its secrets, the dangers concealed under its cover. All mythologies have tales of the Longest Night just before Day breaks and Northern Hemisphere turns its face toward the Sun for six months of longer and longer days. The Longest Night is an opportunity for us to acknowledge our journey in the dark through whatever paths that journey takes us. Perhaps loss or grief, a recognition of impermanence or mortality, a need for silence in the midst of the cacophony of electric lights and noise. Invite a friend. Darkness offers its own Gift.

Come, light a candle, enjoy some poetry, hear some great music, take a deep breath, center your spirit, and welcome the sun.