The Shortest Day

“Forgetting the wrongs, with carols and songs…To drive the cold winter away…”

After our parents passed, my sister and I decided to come up with new holiday season traditions. We started going to Newport RI to visit the mansions in their festive splendor, drink mead at midwinter bonfires and visit Winter Lights at various historic places such as Naumkeag in the Berkshires.

This year we stayed overnight in the Berkshires at a gorgeous farm off the beaten path in New Marlborough, surrounded by fields punctuated with lines of trees and pampas grass. Our suite was part of a renovated barn, rustic and cozy, a lovely place to greet the first day of winter.

Last night on solstice eve, the wind howled around the eaves of our cozy nest and the little stove in the corner cast its soft, golden light, keeping us warm. In the morning, I headed out into the frosty, windy dark to greet the dawn and the winter solstice.

The rising of the sun, the running of the deer…

I walked the edges of each field as the light paled and the stars winked out of sight. I did indeed see the running of the deer, witnessed the waking of small birds and the distant rush of running water. And I felt thankful on this shortest day that I could be present for such things.

This Fall and early Winter has seen a flurry of activity – my first holiday fair as Cú Ruadh was a success, I’ve written an article for a Spring publication, created new works and started new projects. So it was a blessing to pause and mark the shortest day.

One of the things I’m interested in cultivating this winter is the Nordic concept of Hygge (pronounced “Hooge”). Hygge is a turning inward during the winter months (no surprise in countries where the sun all but disappears for months) and speaks to the need in all of us to settle in and slow down. There are ten aspects to Hygge: atmosphere, presence, pleasure, equality, gratitude, harmony, comfort, truce, togetherness and shelter.

Taken together these aspects create a structure for daily living that keeps one in a state of calmness and contemplation. Candles, fires, curling up with a good book, journaling, stepping away to detox and rejuvenate. We all say we are going to do this but in places like Iceland and Denmark it is a cultural practice and everyone enjoys Hygge. While the same can’t be expected elsewhere, it is something worth building around yourself and your loved ones to push back the shadows and cold.

This solstice day I will spend hiking and tonight will light a bonfire at home to mark the longest night. And I will be blessed to be with those I love most in the world.

Welcome Yule.

“So the Shortest Day came and the year died 

And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world 

Came people singing, dancing, To drive the dark away.  

They lighted candles in the winter trees; 

They hung their homes with evergreen; 

They burned beseeching fires all night long To keep the year alive.  

And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake T

hey shouted, reveling. 

Through all the frosty ages you can hear them Echoing behind us ‐ listen!  

All the long echoes, sing the same delight, 

This Shortest Day, As promise wakens in the sleeping land: 

They carol, feast, give thanks, 

And dearly love their friends, 

And hope for peace.  And so do we, here, now, 

This year and every year. 

Welcome Yule! “ – Susan Cooper