Reply #6: In its simplest form, it is a celebration of the return of the light [View All]

[hecate77]

Winter Solstice marks the beginning of lengthening days and the end of shortening days.

As well, another common connection made with Winter Solstice, in conjunction with the Wheel of the Year, which begins on Samhain (pronounced Sow-ain), is that this is the time in the wheel when the child is born (Christians stole this date and moved it out a few days in an attempt to usurp this date). The Christians did a lot of this, building their churches on native holy ground, taking our holidays and making them into their own, taking the idea of the Goddess and making her into the mother of jesus, and all that. But, I digress.

The seasons are the seasons and everyone has a right to use them as they see fit.

Back to the Wheel of the Year. It really is just a cycle of birth, growth and death, where you can equate the birth process with Winter Solstice or New Moon, or actual Birth of an idea, whatever. As the child, idea, whatever, grows, it moves through the seasons, so that in May, there is creation of new life (matching a person's coming into puberty and having sex), a fullness of life, say at Summer Solstice or Full Moon, a time for harvest, say at Fall Equinox, and a time for death, say at the halfway point between Equinox and Winter Solstice. The period after Death till Birth is spent in the underworld, or on a more mundane level, considering the results of the last cycle and planning for a new one.

I hope this gives a fair picture of some of the symbology that can be associated with Winter Solstice.

Wiccans usually think in terms of cycles, so this is one of our main tools for organizing our lives around natural cycles.

Ask more if you like. I'm always happy to talk about something more positive than our current political situation!