Celebrating the Winter Solstice and everything else

Amonth ago, I was sorting clothes into storage boxes. I laughed at the flannel PJs and sweaters that I couldn’t imagine wearing during a warm November. I have the same reflex toward the heavy winter clothes for sale at a local big box store. I figure it never gets cold enough to wear that stuff unless you’re going to the Canadian Rockies.

In less than a month, I’m wearing flannels and heavy sweatshirts earlier in the day and certainly once the sun goes down. Off with the shorts and on with the winter gear. There has been a consistent 30 or more degree drop from sundown to the early morning hours. There may be lettuce ice in the open fields this week. If you go out early in the morning, as does my dear wife, it’s in the 40s. Near blizzard temps. She gets to wear her boots, a major wardrobe change from summer sandals.

‘Tis the season for dress up. This is what all that heavy clothing is for, and I was about to give much of it to a thrift store. A number of items, such as pants, that mysteriously shrunk in the closet during the year will be donated along with unused long sleeve shirts and sweaters. People can use them.

I’ve figured out what to wear, though that took some time. My problem now is keeping up with holiday season celebrations. I’ve read in the LA Times that there’s supposedly a big battle between wishing someone Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas. At times such as this, I’m glad I live in the sleepy Imperial Valley. I say Happy Holidays to people, and we will celebrate Christmas in a week. What’s the fuss? This past week we celebrated Hanukkah, the festival of lights. It’s a time of rededication and thanks. We have a small menorah filled with eight candles. One is lit on each night beginning this year Dec. 12. The same day marked the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. I was in Calexico and could hear the fireworks in Mexicali, a familiar indication that the blessed celebration had arrived. The tradition is that the Virgin of Guadalupe appeared to an indigenous man speaking both in Spanish and Nahuatl. She urged him to tell the bishop to build a shrine in the place she appeared. This event is seen as a blending of indigenous and Spanish colonial cultures which have shaped Mexico over the centuries.

This week we will celebrate the prehistory, pagan observance of the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. What do we do? A bonfire is lit to beat back the darkness, and to celebrate the very beginning of the change when the days become longer. This will enable farmers to plant and produce crops in the coming spring, an important time before canned and frozen foods. Before Amazon could ship a box of steaks to your front door in a day or two, the length of time the sun shone on farmers’ fields was more important to food security.

We don’t eat steak at the Winter Solstice fire. We eat donuts and pastries and drink hot chocolate. Some of us write resentments or petitions on small pieces of paper and throw them into the red-hot fire. Yes. It’s alternately cold and hot, and it’s smoky and great fun. We move our chairs closer to the fire when it has burned down and move our chairs back when the flames consume added logs. We tell stories and wish each other Happy Holidays, Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas. And, of course, wishes for whirled peas.