every day in 2016, write a sentence or a paragraph or a poem that appreciates
solstice
what the heck is the solstice anyway? nowadays it's an astronomical event, when the sun appears to be as far north or as far south as it's gonna get. now that may disturb you, since the solstice today occurred at 2:44 am L.A. time, and the sun was nowhere to be seen in L.A. the earth is tricky that way. not all events are L.A.-centric. on the other side of the world, where the sun was shining, the sun was as far south of the equator as it ever gets. that means, today, in the Northern hemisphere we get the least amount of daylight hours during this year. some people say that's the shortest day of the year, but a day is just about 24 hours long day in and day out, so that's not quite accurate. daylight hours get shorter and shorter until the winter solstice, and then they get longer and longer until the summer solstice. anyway, last night we had the solstice, the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. the sun declined as far south as it will this year. way back in olden days, in Europe, pagans celebrated the winter solstice, partly because as soon as it was done, daylight hours got longer, and soon spring arrived with its promise that life will continue. yea! Christians, needing another reason to kill pagans, stole the holiday, moved it off four days so it would make no sense, and decided that was when their Savior was born. it was very weird, especially since everybody knows Christ was an American, and America hadn't even been discovered yet except by those people who lived all over it, but didn't have guns or smallpox. but Christians never worry much about making sense, not as long as they have someone to kill for a good reason. so anyway, today is the solstice, and Merry Christmas.
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