We are days away from the last sunset of the year. December has slipped past in a rush of twinkle lights, family, and food. I love winter, despite the rain and the wind, it is a season in which I find a lot of joy. My knitwear, the low sun turning now dry bracken to gold, the cats sleeping on my bed because it is too wet to spend their nights hunting. Winter is full of wonderful things, but no part of it is as wonderful as the sacred days of December. Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice. This year has been full to bursting with the treats of the holiday season, the traditions, the sacred moments. From my first Hanukkah meal (I wrote a little about this last time) to gathering with friends, my family has fully embraced the light and love of winter.
Though my family is huge, and spreads out across the globe, out little unit is a small one. Myself, my Mum, my sister, her husband Nick, our animals. This year our usual rhythms changed as Kim spent Christmas with Nicks family, coming to Cornwall first, for the Winter Solstice. We filled the days leading up to Solstice with walks and seasonal movies and games.
Then on the night before Solstice, we went to the local community orchard solstice celebrations, where we jumped over a fire pit to welcome the lengthening days and the return of the sun, before getting out our drums to join the drumming circle. I haven’t drummed in years and joining the beat of the circle felt like returning home to something. It was also the second moment in this sacred season that I joined the music, the first being at Rogue Theatre where Old Man Winter led us in song at the end of their show. I have written about the magic of Rogue here before, it is a magic that suits this sacred season, and one which makes me feel safe. Safe enough, it turns out, to sing in public for the first time in decades. I cried as I did it, the relief and power of it scary and utterly divine. Â
For those who aren’t aware Winter Solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year. After that the days start getting longer, the light returning in increments. Since prehistory, Solstice has been a time of huge significance to cultures around the world, marked by festivals and celebrations. Here in the UK places like Stonehenge are aligned with the sunrise and sun set of the solstice. My family have always marked solstice in some way and entirely moving our celebration to Solstice made a deep kind of sense that resulted in one of our best Xmases ever. We did all the things one associates with Xmas day: the walk, the food, the gifts, we simply did them all early. Our tree, all colour, lights, and woodland smells, made the living room a place of celebratory splendour as we embraced each other and the day.
With Kim having left us my Mum and I decided to spend Christmas day in my van. And so, we had our first every Christmas in my house, with my own tree and everything. After walking Gem Dog through the quiet land of Rogue Theatre, which was sleeping for the day but still glorious, we parked up in the sun overlooking the sea and ate Christmas sandwiches. My van is a half-completed home, a site of work to come and work in progress, but it is a home, and it has never felt more like one that sitting next to my Mumma listening Elvis and celebrating together.
It seems to me that that is what these special winter days, be it Xmas, Hanukkah or Solstice are about. They are a coming together to create moments of joy and connection in our homes and sacred spaces. We’ve done that to its fullest here in our little corner of Cornwall, and I feel replenished and nourished because of it.
I hope, whatever you did and whoever you shared it with, it brought you smiles and twinkle lights to guide the way into the New Year.
I will see you all there.
Lovely price of writing that warmed my cockles happy new year Rosie x