Happy Solstice but if you are celebrating is it today or tomorrow?

[BerthaFlapjack]

Happy Solstice to those who like to mark the darkest point of the year.

The actual time is 3.27 am tomorrow morning so will you celebrate tonight or tomorrow? Or stay up late for the exact time? Interested to hear what others to to celebrate too.

We are celebrating today. Well just me as everyone is at school they've never been in school this late 😞

I got up early to try to sit in the garden but 60mph winds stopped that, I'll get out later. We had nacreous clouds yesterday.

I'm watching the live stream from stone henge now quickly before DC wake up. I'd love to go one day not even for the solstice just a normal day I feel so drawn to it but it's so far away!

I'll also plant some spring bulbs later as is our tradition. We would usually do a fire pit but that pesky school is in the way 😂

It'll be dark..

FWIW whilst Dec 21/22 is the shortest day the timing of latest sunrise/earliest sunset doesn't coincide with the date of the solstice.

For the northern hemisphere the time of latest sunset actually happened about seven days ago - i.e. the evenings have already been drawing out for about a week.

Bad news is latest sunrise doesn't happen until around 1st of Jan.

I'm celebrating today, but finding it weird that it's not the 21st.

I'm watching the Stonehenge livestream too. Toddler DD is watching with me (well, drawing and eating toast on my lap).

We'll go out for a long walk later, and I'll sow some seeds when we get home. Broad beans (DD can help with these), lambs lettuce, winter gem lettuce, sweet peas and snapdragons.

That reminds me @Brontosaurus we have broad beans too to plant!

We ate a candlelit meal, read a poem and discussed how ancient humans celebrated the return to light. Oak King and Holly King, etc. We wrote intentions on scraps of paper, burned them in the garden fire, roasted marshmallows and lit sparklers. It's a simple affair, but cosy and uplifting. We love it.

Do we wish each other Happy Solstice?

@Decafflatteplease Sowing broad beans always cheers me up over winter when there's not much else going on. They kickstart things and get me thinking about seeds and spring before the new year even rolls around

Have you been collecting loo roll holders for sowing? I don't have enough, as usual.

I sat in the garden under a very clear starry sky and thought about the year that has been, and the one to come. It's been a strange and sad year and I don't know if next year will be better. But we have to have hope.

Also recommend the book The Wheel of The Year by Rebecca Beattie for this. It’s currently only £1.09 for the kindle version on Amazon.

Yes absolutely. My friends and I do.

Happy Winter Solstice everyone ❄️ ☀️ 💫 🍂 here’s to letting go of any difficulties and to looking forward to the next turn of the wheel and the possibilities it brings.

AvenueCornelius Absolutely we do, I exchanged a few texts with friends this morning.

Happy Solstice to you!

It's awful depressing when you think of it like that.

At the Winter Solstice, I always imagine my distant ancestors wondering if this year will be the year that the days just keep on shortening, instead of getting longer again like they have done in the recent past

It's only a theory of my own, but it occurs to me that around Dec 25th is about the time the Wise Folks would be able to report that, thankfully, the days are actually getting longer - hence . (I presume this would involve weather-dependent celestial observations,)

I celebrate today, because it's my birthday. Light comes back in the form of candles on my cake!

They are fine ....its November and December I hate

See I don't find that depressing at all, it's just incredible that the earth tilts and moves like that completely regardless of what we do

I celebrated on the 21st, candles and nice food with a good friend.