Celebrate the Winter Solstice

Sunrise

Sunrise December 21, 2010 is 7:40 a.m. in Mercer, WI

Even though the sun is rising late these days the sleepy dogs don't want to get out of bed.

Asher

Maddie Jo

Gracie

According to a solstice website, http://www.candlegrove.com/solstice.html, "Many, many cultures the world over perform solstice ceremonies. At their root: an ancient fear that the failing light would never return unless humans intervened with anxious vigil or antic celebration." I'm not sure what an anxious vigil or an antic celebration entails, but I'm going to be anxiously driving through a winter storm to Milwaukee to celebrate the holidays with my dad.

Curious about my heritage, I was looking up Scandinavian solstice traditions.  It seems ancient Vikings would leave fires or candles burning all day to symbolize the heat, light and life-giving properties of the  sun. A Yule log was brought in and burned through the day in honor of Thor. This sounds like a great practice and one I know the Weimaraners would enjoy.

Okay, where's the Yule log?

We'll have to do that next year because I'll be on the road most of the day.  Here's something doable.

In Scandinavia, some families place all their shoes together, as this will help them to live in harmony throughout the year. Okay, Dad, Karen get your shoes ready.

The Tea Party (the band, not the political party) has a nice instrumental piece called Winter Solstice. You can listen to it on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hdf4Qcy1MEI.

Sunset

Sunset December 21, 2010 is 4:17 p.m. in Mercer, WI

You can find out the time of the sunrise and sunset by zipcode for any date on the Calendar Updates website http://www.calendar-updates.com/sun.asp