Yes, Dec 21 is the First Official Day of Winter!But try to tell that to the folks in the NorthEast USA and elsewhere around the world who are trying to dig out from humongous snowfalls.
‘Winter’ came a few days early for them and others around the world.
Indeed, the picture today, was taken by a relative who was in the thick of it! Wow!
What a mess.
Of course, some people really like winter. Don’t ask me why. I am sure not one of them. In fact, as I have often said, “If I never see another snowflake as long as I live, it will be fine with me.”
But, I digress. So, to continue. As you know, the occasion of the Winter Solstice is important for several reasons, not the least of which is that the days which have been getting shorter and shorter for the past several months, will now begin to get longer and longer! Yay!
It will be a slow and incremental increase in the length of each day, of course, culminating eventually the longest day of the year each year at the Summer Solstice.
But, today, we are thinking of the Winter Solstice. And, we are not the only folks who have found this to be an interesting and important time of the year.
The ‘ancients’ (who supposedly were ‘ignorant’, knuckle dragging entities according to those with the evolutionary glasses) knew about the Winter Solstice and even erected structures (monoliths, buildings, carins, etc.) to help them know exactly ‘when’ the Winter Solstice occurred.
One of these structures is known as Maes Howe (also known as Maeshowe). I have visited this site and other similar sites such as the Chambered tomb of Newgrange. These sites are famous for their midwinter (Winter Solstice) alignments.
Many of these sites today have video cameras set up so we can sit at our computers and see what the ‘ancients’ saw millennia ago. One of these cameras is at the Maeshowe site. HERE’S THE LINK
And for more information and a bunch of other links about Maeshowe, HERE’S THE LINK.
