Monday, June 20, 2016

Winter Solstice

Wishing everyone a wonderful winter solstice.

We have spent a lovely day doing school work at home and hanging out together as a family.  Arden and Irving and I were quite busy working together, whilst Willow and Gabriel worked independently.  Damien came home to join in our solstice fun, which included listening to Elvis and Johnny Cash singing Christmas carols, as well as some Christmas Jazz tunes! (and of course Damien and I did a little bit of rockabilly dancing).

This year we celebrated solstice with home made pork and cider pie with sauerkraut and chocolate pudding.  We sat out under the full moon and released our wishes for the future with a small candle ritual.  We came indoors and messed about with our instruments; it was all a bit chaotic, particularly with Irving claiming everyone's instruments at various points!

I must admit I miss our fire burning rituals from when we lived in Adelaide and we celebrated this time, but I've been trying to reconstruct some of this festivals for the climate we currently live in.  Perth just doesn't have winter.  We do have some cold nights, but a cold day is very rare.  The description of the Aboriginal seasons here, refers to this being a time of wet, whereas Adelaide describes this time as being cold (plus rain is *always* rare in Adelaide, and even Adelaide only has a taste of winter compared to many places).  Winter solstice here, is much more about feeling joyous that the days will be longer, but that there is still some cool and some rain to come, and so lots of time for lovely cosy indoor activities.  Lots of hearty food and lots of craft.  Things that I just don't tend to do in Summer because it's *too* hot!

I hope wherever you Solstice is wonderful, and that you can find meaning with it in your local climate and environment. :)

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