Winter solstice is a magical day of the year. It's the day of the year when we have the least number of sunlight hours. For an outdoors person like me it's a notable day. For me the sun rose at 8:43 and set at 4:35. It will be a few days before the day light starts to increase. We had a clear sunny day with the temperature around minus 18 C(0 F).
Many ancient cultures recognized the shortest day of the year and had it identified fairly accurately. There were numerous types of celebration depending on the culture. They recognized that the days were going to get longer and they celebrated even though in northern areas they knew that the worst of the winter season was ahead of them.
So today I have some reason for a quiet celebration. Sadly we do not have any formal recognition of this day.
