Holidays – Day 8

We would like to wish everyone the best of the festive season – no matter what it’s called at your house. In pagan traditions, the solstice is a time to put away the things of the old year and look forward to the new. One observance of the solstice involves extinguishing all the fires in your home before midnight on the eve of the solstice and lighting a new fire the next day. This probably won’t be quite as symbolic if you have central heating.

The winter solstice falls on December 21 – the word solstice means “sun stopping.” The winter solstice is the day on which the sun reaches as far south of the equator as it gets, and is as such the shortest and darkest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. The solstice marks the rebirth of light for the coming spring.

The winter solstice also marks, among other things, the druid festival of Alban Arthuan – a time for bestowing gifts upon those less fortunate than ourselves. Out of this observance has grown the more popular tradition of gift-giving, Black Friday, last minute shopping, maxed-out credit cards and 70% off sales. May the goddess be with you during this season – but don’t blame her if you get socks again.

We celebrated the Winter Solstice today – I know, a day late. The Solstice was actually at 7:30 PM yesterday here in Kona. For our Solstice feast we had a massive amount of mahi mahi . Rice and a salad of avocado, oranges, and pineapple. And cake. And coffee. We enjoyed a nice day out in the ocean and in the sun.

Carlton hasn’t given up the Kindle yet. He is still reading Dracula. I got him Dracula from the library – but, he keeps reading it on the Kindle. I can wait. I am listening to Steven King’s Under the Dome (30 hours) on the iPod and got The Magician King from the library. So, I can continue with the old technology. Offered to get Mr. C his own Kindle. He doesn’t want one. Which I guess is good – ’cause I’d have to keep it filled up with books. And charged. And, I am very tired of taking care of things.