The Winter Solstice in Northern Hemisphere will be at 4:21 AM PM (EST), the shortest amount of daylight of the year and the longest night.
It’s officially the first day of Winter and one of the oldest known holidays in human history.
Anthropologists believe that solstice celebrations go back at least 30,000 years, before humans even began farming on a large scale. The stone circles of Stonehenge were arranged to receive the first rays of midwinter sun.
It is therefore a good time to do things you wouldn’t want the sun to hear about. The Pagans, for example, wisely celebrate their Yule holiday on the Winter Solstice.
Ancient peoples believed that because daylight was waning, it might go away forever, so they lit huge bonfires to tempt the sun to come back. The tradition of decorating our houses and our trees with lights at this time of year is passed down from those ancient bonfires.
In Ancient Rome, the winter solstice was celebrated with the festival of Saturnalia,
during which all business transactions and even war were suspended, and slaves were waited upon by their masters.
Hey, Get Naked, Paint Yourself Blue and Dance around the Fir Tree. It’s party time!!!
The Haus of Dcaligari 