The Solstice was yesterday.  This was a traditional Pagan holiday for perhaps thousands of years – from at least the arrival of agriculture in Europe until Christianity took hold.  From the pattern of stars described in the Gospel, and from other evidence, Christ seems to have been born in the early to mid spring.  The holiday was moved backwards to “cover up” the Solstice celebration.

This isn’t a theology blog, and I’m not really concerned with the history here, other than to say that people have been celebrating this event for a very long time.

Yesterday, in Seattle, the sun set at 4:19 pm.  But it gets worse!  If you don’t live on the very western edge of Seattle, there’s almost certainly a ridge between you and the horizon.  I live on the edge of Lake Union, so that for me, the sun set behind Queen Anne Hill at around 3:50 pm.  Darkness followed very quickly.

Today, the sun sets at 4:20 pm, and every day until June buys us anywhere from 1 to 3 minutes of added sunlight.

I’ve become hooked on espresso since moving here.  I think Seattle loves coffee so much because the darkness breaks our circadian rhythm.  When it’s dark this early and this often, we get and stay tired.  Seattlites have taken to carrying lights, dressing up like Eskimos, etc, and while we truly don’t mind the cold, the darkness gets to us.

So I, for one, am happy to greet a series of days each of them longer than the one before.