The library subscribes to these pay-for sites that you can search for information
Winter solstice, the longest night of the year
Solstices take place twice a year - whenever the Earth’s axis is closest to (summer) or furthest away (winter) from the sun. Our winter solstice will be the summer solstice in the northern hemisphere.
For half of the year, from around 20 March to 22 September, the southern hemisphere tips away from the sun – with the solstice marking the furthest point away from the sun. The other half of the year, spring and summer, the southern hemisphere tilts toward the sun.
In many ancient cultures, the solstices were marked with festivals. The Celtic Yule festival gives us many of today’s Christmas traditions, for example. Originally these traditions were tied to the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere.
Web site religious tolerance.org has a comprehensive listing of ways that winter solstices were observed in different cultures and societies around the world.
Ancient cultures also built some of their greatest architectures to align with solstices and equinoxes. Stonehenge, for example, was used for solstice celebrations, although there is still debate as to what else it may have been used for. Stonehenge Aotearoa is the New Zealand version – situated in the Wairarapa countryside, it aims to teach about astronomy, including Babylonian, Celtic and Māori and Polynesian star lore. The guide book to Stonehenge Aotearoa can be found in the library catalogue.
Newgrange – a circular structure in Ireland estimated to be approximately 5,000 years old - was built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep inside the structure at dawn on the winter solstice. On the Orkney Isalnds, north of Scotland Maeshowe, another ancient structure, lets in the setting sun of the winter solstice. Both are World Heritage sites.
Celebrations
In Christchurch, Massive often holds a Winter Soulstice event. Stonehenge Aotearoa hosts an event which focuses on Celtic star-lore and the ancient Wiccan and Druidic festival of Yule.
If you would like to plan your own solstice celebration, this guide may be of use.
Many Pagan festivals began on the northern winter solstice and similar festivities as far back as the pre-Christian festivals of Europe including the Roman festival Saturnalia, a “time of general unrestrained merrymaking, extending even to the slaves”1 and Samhain, celebrated by the Celts as the beginning of winter.
We recommend: Solstice resources
Check out the items in our libraries:
- Festivals
- Fasts and Feasts
- Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
- Books and music related to the winter solstice
- Celtic culture and history
- Celtic architecture
If you are interested in other religions or religious beliefs, below is a list of resources to get you started.
Search for more information in our Digital Library
