Saturday, December 21st marks this year’s Winter Solstice! To most Americans, seeing as how the majority of the population here is Christian, it’s simply the shortest day of the year in terms of sunlight. However, to other people worldwide, it means a bit more than that. Many cultures celebrate their gods and martyrs, others wish for good luck and a good harvest, and overall it’s simply a day to get together and celebrate. A hand invites you to trek through the snow to discover the wonders of the Winter Solstice, part of the most festive time of the year.

The Winter Solstice across cultures, whether celebrated in January, or June, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, has two themes in common: luck and conquering darkness. The Solstice is the darkest day of the year, the coming light is a sign of new beginnings and chances, of new harvest and events and times to spend together. It is also a time to allow the cold to wane and to generally bring in the new year. Well, one may ask, why not just do this during the New Year? The answer is cultural significance. A Western example would be how Americans typically celebrate things like Valentine’s Day for St. Valentine of the Catholic faith with a feast, or on the other side of things, for a lot of people it’s a day to celebrate love–here, it’s the same concept. The Winter Solstice is a holiday that can hold very close ties to mythology, or it can just be a celebration influenced by our favorite abstract concepts: luck and fortune.

 Some examples of mythology-related solstice celebrations are the Native Americans in Arizona and New Mexico (the Hopi and the Pueblo, respectively) and the Romans. They both celebrate gods that represent harvest, light, etc. The Romans celebrated Saturn, their goddess of harvest and time, for example. While the Pueblo and the Hopi celebrate their sun deity. They celebrate these gods through dances, feasts, and prayer, as they ask their gods to give them light and good harvest.

A notable area that celebrates the Winter Solstice is in Asia, notably, China, South Korea, and Japan. However, they don’t directly celebrate a god. Even though all three countries have interesting folklore, they don’t encapsulate a specific religion. Rather, these stories are more like mythical life lessons that people use in their daily lives. This also creates a bit more of a superstitious attitude among those societies, which, in turn, leads to different practices compared to the West–it’s quite interesting! Each of the regions incorporates delicious food into their celebrations–like red bean porridge (Korea), kabocha squash (Japan), and Wonton Soup (China). Customs in these countries generally center around wishing good luck and fortune upon themselves and their families. In Japan, they do something called a yuzu bath, in which they take a yuzu, a plant similar to an orange, and use its peel and insides to purify the bath. This bath can bring relief from colds for a year and can reduce your sensitivity to cold temperatures (Musubi Kiln). In Korea, it’s said that the temperature affects one’s fortune for that year; the colder it is, the more likely you are to have a good year! In China, similar to Japan’s Shintoist traditions, they honor and worship their ancestors, as honoring ancestors has been considered noble and even the norm ever since Confucius’s era. These celebrations are true reflections of the lovely culture that Eastern Asia has to offer.

The Winter Solstice is a time for celebration, wishes, and togetherness for folks all around the world. Various traditions make it just widely celebrated like Christmas here in the West. The traditions span across centuries, making them pivotal for human history, studies for theology, etc. Their importance cannot be understated, and they’re also just fascinating to learn about. As the sun sets, while you may see it as just a simple day, many others see it as a new light, a new beginning, and a new year. Happy Holidays!