Today in New York City, the 2016 winter solstice began at 5:44 A.M. As most folks know, the winter solstice is the darkest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. However, it also signifies the coming of lighter days and often brings on a festive mood; as evidenced by the snowpersons pictured in the images directly above this blog entry.
In certain time zones, religious leaders have used the coming, of more light as an analogy to Christ's coming bringing more light with his birthday celebrated on December 25th, the day of Christmas.
It is a comforting thought on the surface for believers, unless one thinks about that too long. For isn't His birth proclaimed in a hymn's lyrics as "joy to the world?" Not all of the world experiences the December winter solstice in this manner. For example, our Aussie friends and Brazilian comrades are usually in the midst of summer at this time.
Be that as it may, some folks see the winter solstice as a sign of hope because the light will be increasing with each of the coming days, and they have the mindset of the snowlady pictured below.
On another note, those same people tend to dread the summer solstice because each coming day after that is darker and darker!
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