Light a candle it's the Winter Solstice. Solstice is an astronomical
phenomenon that occurs in December in the Northern Hemisphere on the 20th through the 22nd depending where you are. The solstice is the moment when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky of the winter months. It's the shortest day and the longest night of the year. If you're in the southern hemisphere (which most of my readers are not), it occurs in June while we're having the Summer solstice and Midsummer's night. Since the actual solstice is about the height of the sun, it usually is marked as midwinter or midwinter's night. Several ancient and modern pagan festivals were built around solstice including the Roman Saturnalia a week long debauch as if the Romans needed and excuse for debauchery. Wiccans have their own festival as did the ancient Norse who called the festival "Yule". Stonehenge and other neo-lithic monuments were designed to mark the winter and summer solstices and the equinoxes and pagan peoples built festivals around those seasons. Today's neo-pagans still like to throw the odd shindig as well. The rest of us pay no attention because we're too busy with Christmas.
One thing good that happens at solstice is that the days star getting longer. Celebrating that probably helps with the mass seasonal depression that is common at times of year when sunlight is restricted. Tell your sweetie she makes your days brighter with this
free downloadable Winter Solstice Day card.
Just click on the caption below the picture of the winter sun. The link will take you to a pdf file
in Google Docs. Download
the file. Don't try to print the file from within Google Docs. I use a
lot of fonts and Google Docs doesn't seem to like them very much.
Instead, click on "File" in the upper left corner, then select
"download" and copy the file to your own computer. Open it with Adobe
PDF Reader or whatever PDF reader you prefer. Print the card from there
and it should be fine.
This is a side fold card, so
when you print it, be sure to select "landscape" and if you have
two-sided printing, choose "flip on the short side" so that the inside
of the card is the same way up as the outside.
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