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.
This annual solstice greeting is several days late. Blame my tardiness on the Mayan Apocalypse. Or blame it on my advancing years. Or just my general laziness.
Okay. Here is the deal on dermatologists. We have two. Both of them will see Mr C. BUT, the one that takes Medicare doesn’t do what he needs done. She refers skin cancer cases to Honolulu. The one who does skin cancer patients doesn’t take insurance or Medicare. So, we’ll be heading home sooner than planned. He wants to stay until the end of January. We’ll see.