The Winter Solstice Lantern Festival

Vancouver, British Columbia

To honor the many cultural winter solstice traditions, Vancouver’s Secret Lantern Society created the city’s annual Winter Solstice Lantern Festival. Participants can attend workshops to create their lanterns. On the night of the solstice, processions march throughout the city, culminating in fire performances. Attendees can also try to find their way through the Labyrinth of Light, a maze of 600 candles that invites visitors to let go of old thoughts and find new possibilities for the new year. This year, the festival is taking place on Saturday, Dec. 21, 2025.

Saturnalia,Rome

Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival, is often seen as a forerunner to modern Christmas celebrations. This lively holiday was a time for honoring their Roman god Saturn and embracing pagan winter solstice traditions. Originally held on December 17, the festivities were so beloved that they were extended to last from December 17 to 23, filled with feasts, gift-giving and more. While Saturnalia isn’t widely celebrated today, the city of Chester in the UK keeps the tradition alive in honor of its Roman history. Each year, Roman soldiers march through the city center, handing out glow sticks and adorning their homes with greenery, bringing a touch of ancient festivity to modern times.

Saint Lucia Day, Scandinavia 

As with many modern celebrations, ancient festivals observing the winter solstice merged with newer winter solstice rituals to create the holiday season as we know it today. In Scandinavia, Saint Lucia Day (also called Saint Lucy’s Day) on Dec. 13—the solstice by the old calendar—marks the start of the Christmas season. A procession of young women in white robes, red sashes and wreaths of candles on their heads lights the way through the darkness of winter. Honoring Saint Lucia (aka Saint Lucy), this festival incorporates pagan winter solstice traditions marked by bonfires. Gingersnaps, saffron-flavored buns and glogg are traditionally served.

The Dongzhi Festival,China

The Dongzhi Festival is a thousands-of-years-old festival that takes place between December 21 and December 23 each year. The day is celebrated with family gatherings and a big meal, including rice balls called tang yuan. Thought to mark the end of the harvest season, the holiday also has roots in the Chinese concept of yin and yang: After the solstice, the abundance of darkness in winter will begin to be balanced with the light of the sun.

Shab-e Yalda,Iran

This ancient Persian festival, like many winter solstice holidays, celebrates the end of shorter days and the victory of light over darkness. Meaning “birth,” Yalda is marked by family gatherings, candles (originally fires lit all night), poetry readings and a feast to get through the longest night of the year. Nuts and fruits, including watermelon and pomegranates, are traditionally eaten—legend has it that eating the fruits of summer will protect you from illness in winter.

The Santo Tomas Festival,Guatemala

Although the Catholic church now observes the Feast of Saint Thomas on July 3, in Chichicastenango, Guatemala, the festival is still celebrated for a week leading up to the winter solstice of Dec. 21. Why? Likely because it’s a mix of the Catholic ceremony with native Mayan rituals that may have been timed to the solstice. Today, the feast features brightly colored traditional costumes, masks, parades, fireworks and music, making Guatemala a great winter destination. The highlight is the death-defying custom of the “flying pole dance”: climbing a 100-foot pole, tying on a rope and jumping off the top. Yikes!

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Our Winter Solstice December 21, 2019  

It reminds me of one of the times I had a call on my answering machine after church one Sunday morning, telling me that my mom was back in the hospital. I turned and said to my husband well here I go again, ma is back in the hospital, to which he said honey I know this is hard, but REMEMBER there will be a last time. He had went through his last time about ten years earlier with his mom. I repeated those lines to my kids on several of Jim’s last year visits to the VA.

With the 24 to 48 hr. window in mind I left the hospital after kissing his un-responding lips and saying I’ll see you in the mourning. It was a 20 degree semi cloudy Wisconsin winter night. I got home about 9pm, sank into my chair to just enjoy a short period of no pressing duties, no decisions and no voices.

I would of course be up first thing in the morning and after spending some time with God,(more important than brushing my teeth, changing my under Garments 😊, or drinking my morning French vanilla cappuccino). I would then climb back into my cold car and head back to the VA in Madison.

As per usual our youngest daughter would call to see if I got home OK and give me any updates. I looked at the clock and it said 9:48…12 minutes before 10pm. The reason I remember it, was because the hands were sitting on top of each other. Recognizing the number I answered with my usual hello this is Hope. Expecting my daughters normal report of the latest dad news, or the head count of those still there.  I will forever remember her voice from the brick walled bathroom near Jim’s room. It was loud and had a never ending echo…Ma! dad is dead, he’s gone! The 2 day window had closed in just over 2 hours. It’s strange how something so very expected, can catch you so off guard.

All of the sudden the repeated trips back and forth were over. THIS TRULY WAS as Jim had promised… A last time.

During that same timeframe in the atmosphere (around 10pm) the winter solstice of 2019 was happening.

• Least Daylight: It’s the day with the fewest hours of sunlight for that hemisphere. The LONGEST night of the calendar year, the night with the most darkness.
• Farthest Tilt Away: The Earth’s pole is angled furthest from the Sun, receiving the least direct sunlight. 
• Sun’s Lowest Arc: The Sun appears lowest in the sky, creating the longest shadows. 
• Start of Winter: Marks the beginning of astronomical winter. The beginning of our cold season.
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Our own Winter solstice had begun!! It had the very essence of the true beginning of a season.

I have many times addressed life’s seasons.

And Yes they still come, and they still do. .

A poem I wrote almost 40 yrs ago, during one such season.

The Promise of the SPRING                I sit here with a mental thought,

of the clouded winter sky.

When all the living things of earth,

Has took it’s turn to die

The crusty snow provides a cover,

for the ground so hard and cold.

The trees are bare, with branches seen.

They look so stripped and old.

You wonder then if they’ll make it back,

to hold the birds that sing.

But it seems they have inside of them,

The Promise of the Spring.

When death takes someone close.

All things turn dark and cold.

The empty uselessness remains.

Despite what we are told.

We fear the cold will last forever.

Gray clouds will always fill the sky.

The one we loved is dead and gone.

We’re left behind to say, Goodbye.

Someone you held so close to you,

Has gone where angels sing.

Hold on tight; because with tomorrow;

comes The Promise of the Spring.

Yes! Several springs have came and went since then. But from time to time new solstices happen in our lives. Those moments when the atmosphere in OUR world stops and changes directions.

I can’t say, that will change. I can just offer you the promise….that though it may be awhile, the sunshine will peek through, and the birds will again sing!!      (hold tight)

Blessings!  Thanks for Reading!