Honouring the Winter Solstice, the Return of the Light, & the Yuletide Season

We have come full circle - another cycle of the wheel of the year closes and at the same time, begins again. Darkness envelopes the land now. The shortest day and longest night is upon us and for many people, it's impossible to really see the return of the light until sometimes toward the end of February or even mid-March. Yet by the first week of January, the sun is setting a little bit later, rising a little bit earlier. As we enter the coldest season here in the northern hemisphere, we are also entering a season inching back to warmth and light, one day at a time.

Today also marks the beginning of Yuletide, lasting for 12 days (ending on 1 January 2026). It's no coincidence that "the holidays" in western (Judeo-Christian) culture also fall during this time. By now, it's not exactly a secret that the early church co-opted pagan holidays as their own in order to encourage conversion, and to this day, many of our western Christmas traditions are likely rooted in a more pagan past. However you celebrate the season, this is the time of revelry and light. Christmas lights, tree lights, wreath lights, Menorah lights, evergreens, mistletoe - all of it beautiful and sparkling, lighting the darkness and reminding us of the spark of life waiting to shoot from the earth in the spring.

Despite the revelry of the Yuletide/holiday season, it remains a hard season for many, even those who may be, or say they are, closely connected to the earth's rhythms. It's hard to see the return of the light when it's only creeping back slowly, one minute a day here, two minutes a day there. But just as spending a dollar here and fifty-cents there seems too miniscule an amount to make a dent in one's bank account, over time these micro-transactions accumulate and suddenly, you're wondering where your money went.

If the winter solstice seems only the start of the dark season for you, try tracking sunrise and sunset each day, the way you might track moon phases, moon rise and set times, or, for sea witches especially, tide times. I've found that since I've started tracking all of these things daily, it's fostered a deeper connection between myself and the natural world around me. Seeing these micro-changes day-by-day, week-by-week, full moon to new to full again has made weathering the hardest parts of each season just that little bit easier.

So it is today that I write down sunrise (07:08) and sunset (16:15/4:15pm) and I know that tomorrow I may write those same numbers again, and perhaps even the next day, but no matter what, I won't write down any later sunrise or any earlier sunset. This is it. The perfect balance before the pendulum begins to swing the other way. It will get no darker, there will be no less light than there is today.

We each and all of us have our own ways and rituals to mark this day too. Some of you will join your covens or friends and celebrate with ritual or rites. Others will make a blanket nest and lose themselves in a marathon movie or binge day. Still others will mark the day with crafts, with private ritual, perhaps with bonfires or holiday gatherings or solstice parties.

However you mark this day, remember that the light is returning to the world and each day from here on out will be a little bit brighter, a little bit longer, and before you know it, we'll be writing about the vernal equinox and celebrating the budding trees. Until then, rest. Journal. Read. Connect with spirits. Divine your future or linger in your past, but don't let the darkness take you over. Remember, this is the day in which we honour it because tomorrow, it will begin seeing itself out the door.