December 21: The Shortest, Most Tuneful Day of the Year

Come Carol Your Heart Out with Friends & Neighbors

Morning sunlight entering the chamber of Newgrange on the Winter solstice

By Caitlin Hawke

The ancients knew something about the waning light of early winter.  Look at the 5000 year-old passage tomb of Newgrange (Ireland). You can see webcasts of the Newgrange phenomenon here and a diagram above shows how the solstitial light enters a special portal called the roofbox and drills all the way into the funeral chamber, illuminating the entire interior.

Several thousand years later, circa 1000 AD, at Chaco Canyon's Fajada Butte (New Mexico), the Anasazi made note of the same phenomenon with a petroglyph that is framed by a double dagger of light just at the winter solstice.

Both of these archeoastronomical examples are hat tips from ancient astronomer-builders to the shortest day of the year.

Nowadays in a mind-boggling overcompensation, we've puffed the solstice into a five week extravaganza of light to help us forget the days are short, short, short.

People! Let us remember the winter solistice is but a handful of hours occuring around December 21st, the official first day of the new season. And let us mark that not with petroglyphs but with joyous singing.  Because if Wednesdays are humpdays of the work week, the winter solstice is humpday of the sun's year. The days get longer from here on out.  And we are golden.

And that's something to sing about!

Join in the Block Association's solstitial singing on Wednesday at 7 p.m.  Grab the kids, the spouse or a friend.  Or come make a new one on your way over to 865 West End Avenue.  Join the roaming chorus.  And fete the returning light.

More information in the poster below.  Download the songsheet right here.

Note: if images do not load, visit the blog here.