December 21, 2023 – sunrise: 6:18 a.m., sunset: 5:23 p.m.

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Dec. 21, 2023

Today, December 21, marks what is universally known as the “Winter Solstice”, the shortest day (and longest night) of the year, which makes it kind of special. Many old societies and cultures mark the occasion as a cause for celebration, especially the farmers, who note that with the ensuing days, the sun will shine a little bit longer, and there will be more hours of daylight each day for crops in the field to grow. In Belize, we hardly pay much notice of this event; right now, it is all about the Christmas season and Christmas Day on December 25, then it’s New Year’s Day.

Here’s a contribution from Nick Polizzi at thesacredscience.com:

A Winter Solstice Prayer

For our ancestors, the beginning of winter marked a sacred and deeply symbolic time and is now celebrated by many as Winter Solstice. It falls on the shortest, darkest day of the year and begins our return to brighter weeks ahead.

This year’s winter solstice takes place tonight, Thursday, December 21st, and it beckons us to reflect and to surrender. In my house, we take this time to nourish ourselves with warming, wholesome soup, and connect more deeply through meditation, pranayama, and quiet walks outside.

Nowadays in the Western world, the shift to winter barely registers for most people — except that maybe it’s time to haul your heavy coat out of storage and turn up the dial on your thermostat.

However, when we carry on living the same way regardless of the season, we lose the opportunity to connect with nature … and with our deepest selves. Even though we can control the climate indoors, it’s vital that we pay attention to the lessons that the earth is sharing with us outside.

Ancient cultures like the Egyptians, the Maori, the Maya, the Celts, the Druids, the Inca and so many others, each celebrated Solstice. In the Chinese Taoist tradition, winter solstice is considered the most yin (dark / feminine / damp) day of the calendar. Energy comes to a momentary point of pause, before it gives birth to yang (light / masculine / heat).

Yin and yang form the basis of Chinese medicine, and according to this school of wisdom, one cannot exist without the other. These two seemingly opposite forces are intimately connected and complementary.

I love this concept. We need times of darkness, quiet, stillness, healing and rest, as much as we need activity, noise, and light.

Here is a lovely prayer / poem from the French philosopher and author Albert Camus, that speaks to the spirit of this shortest day of the year:

In the depth of winter, 
I finally learned 
that within me there lay 
an invincible summer.
¯ Albert Camus

Stay curious,
Nick Polizzi
Host of Healing Kitchen: Let Food Be Thy Medicine
& Founder of The Sacred Science