December 2022 Kids’ Corner
from the Gale River Cooperative Preschool
Return to Light
December is the darkest time of the year for the northern hemisphere. The winter solstice, on the 21st, has the longest night and shortest day of the year. Interestingly, because the earth rotates around the sun at an angle, December 21st is the longest day and shortest night of the year for the southern hemisphere!
Traditionally, many communities have celebrated the solstice as it marks when the light begins to return. Many rituals revolve around light, and there are structures around the world built to align with the sun’s position on the solstice.
Newgrange is a dome-shaped, 249-foot-wide monument constructed around 3200 B.C. in Ireland. It was designed so that every winter solstice, the rising sun shines through a “roof box” near the entrance and floods the main passageway and the inner chamber with light. It is a passage tomb along a 62-foot-long corridor with cremated bones. More famously, Stonehenge in England is oriented towards the solstice sunset, though how it was built is a mystery.
Many people also participate in the Waldorf-inspired tradition of a spiral walk. A spiral walk represents the cyclical nature of the year and looking inward to find your own light, then bringing it back out to the world. Usually, a spiral is built out of natural materials with some sort of light at the center. People walk inwards towards the center of the spiral and reflect on the year and themselves. When they reach the center, they take a piece of the light somehow and return back out of the spiral.
You could bring a candle in and light it from the central flame or have a jar lantern that you place a tealight into. However you choose to celebrate or acknowledge the solstice, take some time to both reflect back and look forward as we welcome the return of the light.
Want tips on how to celebrate the solstice? Check out some fun ideas below!
Creating your own spiral walk is pretty simple! You can collect some natural materials like fir boughs or just use scarves or another long material to create the spiral. Set some form of light in the middle and have everyone enter the spiral, collect some light, and return out. This is a great activity with a small group and can be done inside or outside.
Head out for an evening walk/hike on the solstice. Most of us view the 4 pm darkness as a hindrance but actually, it gives us an opportunity to experience the natural world at night without staying up too late! Head out for a walk with a headlamp and see what you can see, hear, and sense. Has anything changed about your familiar natural place?
Create a colorful lantern. This is a great thing to create for the spiral walk or just for holding candles. Save a glass jar and clean it, so you remove the label. Decorate the jar by gluing tissue paper onto it or other thin materials so the light will shine through. Wrap wire around the lip of the jar tightly, then create a handle out of wire so you can hold your jar. Place a candle or tealight inside and enjoy the color!
Bake a delicious Yule log cake! The Yule log is a European/Scandinavian tradition of burning an entire tree over the course of the twelve days of Christmas. It’s pretty difficult to replicate that nowadays, so a fun way to celebrate is to create a cake in the shape of a Yule log! You can find many recipes online or use this one. Enjoy! https://meaningfulmama.com/buche-de-noel-yule-log-recipe-real-simple.html
