Happy Solstice, everyone!
I used to avoid celebrating the solstice, such is my disdain for the larping idiots who gather at Stonehenge every year. Well, ha!ha! they couldn’t do it this year, but you can watch sunrise at Stonehenge via English Heritage’s live stream. Spoiler: this is England. It’s completely clouded over. Go watch dark gray turn light gray, if you like.
I am told the Egyptian Temple of Karnak was built with a solstice alignment, as were some of the towers in Angkor Wat in Cambodia. In Peru, the Temple of the Sun in Machu Picchu has a window that the sun shines through on this day, illuminating a ceremonial stone.
The Roman Saturnalia was a solstice party, and how.
The Chinese have the Dongzhi Festival which, like most Chinese celebrations, revolves around food. Here I took a detour and looked up multiple recipes for glutinous rice balls or tang yuan. I made myself hungry.
In dusty places like Iran and Afghanistan, they have Shab e Yalda, the birth of Winter, on this day. They traditionally eat fresh fruit and think of Summer.
So have an extra helping of gruel tonight! The days are getting longer!
And where did I find this list of holiday delights? Oprah Magazine, of course. I’m not proud.
December 21, 2020 — 4:43 pm
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