Looks like it's once again the season for my Holiday rant....

 I can't believe i've waited a whole year!

Every year there's a big to-do about what to celebrate and what should be wished. Can we say Happy Holidays or will the Christmas fanatics descend upon us again and shame us for our lack of Christian tradition? Well, i'm sorry to say it's already begun and the very people who have an enormous tree put up in NYC just to honour their Holiday are already claiming repression. I feel for them....but i can't quite reach.

I don't really celebrate Christmas. I do, however, have a Holiday that happens to coincide with it. That's Winter Solstice. The two fall only days apart and i'm convinced that the reason is that most early iron-age people didn't notice there was going to be a lengthening of the days 'til a few days after it had begun to happen. So Christmas is on the 25th of December instead of the 21st. No matter really....that's close enough for religion.

So, why do i choose Solstice over the more common American Holiday?
Well, it just seems to make more sense. It's older than Christmas. In fact its observance is older than all of the religions. If we accept that Stonehenge is the oldest physical indication that ancient people knew about the Solstices, that places that realization at some 5 thousand years ago (3,000 BCE). There may be evidence that even before that monument our ancestors knew when the sun had ceased its northward march and was "coming back". It was an important event back in the Neolithic. Knowing how soon they could expect spring was literally a matter of life and death...it's no wonder they were concerned about it. That makes the Solstice celebration the oldest traditional winter Holiday of them all.

Another reason i like the Solstice Holiday is that it's essentially non-controversial. There can be no argument about when Solstice happens or why. It's a physical thing we can all see, understand and experience. It doesn't matter what religion you believe in. It doesn't even matter if you don't believe in any religion at all....Solstice can be shared with everyone.

Good Solstice to ya!