Essay on Winter Solstice - 1411 Words

Winter Solstice The elemental threads woven into the tapestry of traditions we call the Winter Solstice are light, hope, and charity. In the midst of the winter darkness, we beseech the light to return to us with its warmth and fertility, we maintain hope for a healthy and prosperous life, and we share with others, those blessings that we have so graciously been given through kind and thoughtful acts of charity. Dancing through five thousand years of human history, these themes enfold this season in a rich, layered collage of celebrations, folklore and tradition. The mythological creation story recorded in the Pentateuch of the Judeo-Christian Scripture begins that imagery of light: When the Spirit of Life began to create the heavens†¦show more content†¦But what causes the seasons is something completely different from that change of distance. The variety of seasons is caused by the Earth,s slight leaning on its axis (23 degrees and 27 minutes off the perpendicular to the plane of orbit). Winter Solstice occurs when our hemisphere is leaning farthest away from the sun, putting the sun at the lowest arc in the sky and providing the shortest amount of daylight for the year. This planetary pose is what causes all the variety of our climate and all the drama and poetry which flows through the celebrations of our seasons. The mythologies of this event gave an explanation to our ancestors and, probably more important, gave the event meaning, a meaning we are anxiously attempting to recover today. The celebrations of the Winter Solstice are universal and perhaps much older than we can know. At the root of these ceremonies was an ancient fear that the dying light would never return unless humans intervened with anxious vigil and antic celebrations. Going as far back as the Neolithic peoples, their lives were intimately tied to the seasons and the cycle of harvest. Being attuned to the turning skies, these first farmers had the skill to recognize a celestial event like the solstice and celebrate it with fertility rites, fire festivals, offerings and prayers to their gods and goddesses. Tombs, temples, sacred observatories and other megalithic structures of ancient culturesShow MoreRelatedThe Winter Solstice And Northern Hemisphere1268 Words   |  6 PagesSouthern Hemisphere. I say this because it may be summer in America but winter in Australia. But it can also change the weather if you think about it because during the different seasons the temperature changes. For example where we live it gets really hot over one-hundred Fahrenheit. But in the winter time it usually stays over Thirty-Five Fahrenheit. But that s because of the Summer Solstice. The Summer Solstice is one of the biggest parts of one of our seasons. The season I m talkingRead More Death in Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening Essay679 Words   |  3 Pagesevening, but on the darkest evening of the year, the winter solstice (474). The winter solstice is the day marking the beginning of winter, when the sun is the sky for the shortest time, and the night is longest. Night, with its darkness and shadows, is a classic symbol of death. On the winter solstice, Death can be considered his strongest, for his time, the night, is the longest it will ever be during the year. Everything about the winter solstice heralds death; the long night strengthens the powerRead MoreA Look At Discrimination Essay1547 Words   |  7 PagesNaturally, you do not wish to offend them by a public display of Christmas, so you decide to rename the upcoming Christmas holiday period. 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Or probably the speakr just want to exaggerate expression by saying it is theRead MoreVideo Family Assessment : Winter Solstice Essay816 Words   |  4 Pages Video Family Assessment: Winter Solstice Sade Thompson University of Southern California, Rossier School of Education Introduction Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) was developed by Dr. Susan Johnson and Dr. Leslie Greenberg in the 1980s’. EFFT is a structured, short-term approach to couples, family, and individual therapy. 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It s made of large stone blocks that were probably set up as a kind of an astronomical calendar. Sunrise on the summer solstice was the most important time, when the Sun would have shone through the monument. In the past century or so, Stonehenge has been vied for the title of world s oldest observatory with construction beginning around 2,000 to 3,000 B.C. No one is quiteRead MoreThe Reason For The Change1190 Words   |  5 Pagesearth’s axis. It is not because of the earth’s distance from the sun like many people think. In the northern hemisphere, during winter, we are closer to the sun which is opposite of what most people assume. While the northern hemisphere is experiencing summer, the southern hemisphere is experiencing winter and vice versa. The sun is actually closer to the earth during the winter and farther away during the summer. Rotation is when something turns with a circular movement around a central point. RevolutionRead MoreLinking Lab 1 Astr1012457 Words   |  10 Pagesdegrees | Summer Solstice | June 21 | 6 H | 23.5 degrees | Autumnal Equinox | September 23 | 12 H | 0 degrees | Winter Solstice | December 21 | 18 H | -23.5 degrees | Question 10: Write out a description of the ecliptic on the flat sky map. What does the shape look like? Describe the ecliptic in terms of its average and range of declination values. The ecliptic will reach its maximum during the Summer Solstice and its minimum Read MoreSeason and Axis Angle2012 Words   |  9 Pages Student Exploration: Seasons: Why do we have them? Vocabulary: direct sunlight, Earth’s axis, equator, indirect sunlight, northern hemisphere, North Pole, season, solstice, southern hemisphere, South Pole, summer solstice, winter solstice Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.) 1. At what time of day is sunlight strongest – in the early morning (when the Sun has just risen) or at noon (when the Sun reaches its highest point)? At noon when the Sun reaches its highest point