Short Days, Long Nights - the Significance of New Beginnings

I recently had a paradigm shift where I began to see the short days of winter differently.

December 21st, or the winter solstice, in the northern hemisphere is officially the shortest day of the year and the longest night. Like many others, I have thought of this date as the official beginning of winter. Until recently, when I thought of winter, I thought of barren trees, cold and ice. In the Puget Sound area, the nights are considerably shorter than the rest of the year. In fact, that has been one of the toughest parts of living here for me.

That has begun to change as I gain some new insight into the season.

First, though, some context is in order. On the winter solstice, the sun set at 4:21 here in Tacoma. With sunrise at 7:53, that makes for an 8-1/2 hour day.

When we first moved to Tacoma nearly two years ago, I was completely unaware of how much a difference being near the 47th parallel from the equator made in comparison to where we had lived in Asheville, North Carolina—which is at the 35th parallel.

In Asheville the shortest day of the year began at 7:35 and ended 9-3/4 hours later at 5:21. That is a difference of 1-1/4 hours. Working the hours I did then I would still be getting to work shortly after sunrise and leaving after the sun had set. During the work weeks in winter all I saw was about an hour of sun. That hour of sunlight later in the day, made a big difference. If I could end work between 5 or 5:30, I could actually leave work while the sun was still on the horizon. Here in Tacoma, that isn't the case. Ugh!

As I mentioned earlier, I associated the winter solstice with barren trees, ice and cold. I hadn't had much appreciation for those things when my life revolved around numbers and analysis. I really didn't appreciate the short days.

Since I began spending so much more of my time working on artistic endeavors, I have begun to find the beauty in ice and cold. They can make some interesting formations which in turn can make for some interesting photographs.

I didn't expect that. Neither did I expect to find the flip side of the winter solstice as the shortest day of the year. It was a paradigm shift for me when I realized that the days on the other side of the shortest day of the year begin to get longer. Seen another way, the winter solstice is a new beginning for the year. In ancient days, the winter solstice was a time of celebration in recognition of that new beginning.

Even today we celebrate the birth of Christ as a new beginning around the time of the winter solstice. The meaning behind the holiday and the winter celebration are different but the timing is not coincidental, nor do I think that it needs to be.

During this time of celebration, we sing a song that comes from a poem by Sir Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem, Ring Out Wild Bells, that now holds more significance for me. Published in 1850, the poem was part of the elegy In Memoriam written for his dear friend and sister's fiancé, Arthur Henry Hallam, who died at the tender age of twenty-two.

In the poem, Tennyson writes:

The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.
...
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

The poem goes on ringing out different types of falsehoods and societal maladies:

1. grief for those we see no more (a reference to Hallam);
2. ancient forms of party strife;
3. the want, the care, the sin, the faithless coldness of the times;
4. false pride in place and blood, the civic slander and the spite;
5. old shapes of foul disease, the narrowing lust of gold;

In the spirit of new beginnings, the poem also rings in blessings for society:

1. Ring in the nobler modes of life, with sweeter manners, purer laws.
2. Ring in the love of truth and right, ring in the common love of good.
3. Ring in the thousand years of peace.
4. Ring in the Christ that is to be.

In this season of new beginnings, we celebrate as we ring out the old, tired, unkind ways because we are, at least in spirit, ringing in love and fellowship.

The winter solstice can be seen for its season of cold, ice and short days and long nights. Given a new perspective, though, the solstice can be seen as a time for new beginnings. It may be a time of dormancy and rest, but as the season progresses short days begin to get longer, ice melts, the sun shines, and the budding of spring begins to become visible.