The darkest day of the year

Note: This column, a favorite of mine, is a re-run. It was first published on Dec. 25, 2021.

MINOT, N.D. — In our part of the world, which is to say the northern part of the northern hemisphere, we saw, this week, the darkest day of the year. The winter solstice. The day when the North Pole reaches its furthest tilt from the sun’s warm radiance.

It’s a dark day.

A cold day.

Christmas is what most of us in our society celebrate this time of year. We light up the Christmas trees. We light up our homes and businesses. We light up our lives with friends and family, works of charity and gift-giving, music, and feasting.

Yet, those same themes exist outside of the Christian tradition.

The Romans, at various times and in various ways, worshiped a sun god, Sol, celebrating the deity, the “unconquerable sun,” around the time of the winter solstice.

The Zoroastrians celebrate

“Shab-e Chelleh/Yalda”

by gathering together to drink, eat, and read poetry.

In many Asian countries, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam, they celebrate

Dongzhi

by bringing together families and eating tangyuan.

Pagan Slavs celebrated

Korochun

by lighting fires in cemeteries and holding feasts there, so their ancestors could feel warm and honored.

Jewish communities observe Hanukkah this time of year, and while it begins and concludes well before the solstice, the symbolism is relevant. It is, after all, the “festival of light.”

Long before Europeans arrived on the North American continent, the various Native American tribes had traditions and celebrations they observed around the solstice,

many of them focused on family, story-telling, and gifts

. The Zuni people celebrate

Shalako

with dancing and ceremony. The Blackfeet of Montana organized games in their various communities.

On Salisbury Plain in England stands ancient Stonehenge, which historians believe was built to mark the solstice. It is home to winter solstice celebrations

to this day

.

Along the Mississippi River, near St. Louis, stands the

Cahokia Mounds

, or what some call “Woodhenge,” which features a structure of wooden posts seemingly built to track the sun, in much the same way Stonehenge does, for ritual and celebration.

Humanity, robbed on the solstice of the fullness of the sun’s light and warmth, has, across its spectrum of race and culture, created traditions that seek to replace that literal light and warmth with figurative alternatives found in family and fellowship.

Today we spend so much of our time focused on what divides us. I’m as guilty of that as anyone. It can be a depressing reality.

So there’s solace in what humanity — all of humanity throughout recorded history and across the varieties of culture and geography — does in its darkest and coldest moments.

We turn inward. We replace natural warmth and light with equivalents found in one another.

Friends, fellowship, food, and faith that the sun will shine on us all again.

Have a wonderful holiday, my friends.