Winter Solstice Celebrations

Winter Solstice Celebrations- The History Behind .

The origin of the Winter solstice celebrations is a great topic for an informative speech. Combine it with a party and you will have a great event.

If you are lucky enough to be invited to a winter solstice party or even throwing a party yourself the information you will find here, will be great for some topical conversation.

Here are a few ideas to include in your speech.

• Date of the winter solstice

To work out the date of the winter solstice, you need to know when the shortest day of the year is.

Northern Hemisphere: between December 20th and December 23rd
Southern Hemisphere: between June 20th and June 23rd

Most years it actually falls on the 21st, but in a leap year it usually changes.

Here would be a perfect opportunity to use a visual aid to show why we have long and short days, and why the dates differ  depending if you are in the northern or southern hemisphere.

• Meaning of the Word Solstice

The word solstice comes from the Latin words:
 Sol-sun
sistere -to stand still

Many ancient people had strong respect for the sun, some even worshipped it. They viewed it as a wheel that changed the seasons as it turned.

They believe it stood still for twelve days in the middle of winter.

• 'Winter Solstice' and 'Yuletide'

One possible explanation: 

'Yule' is thought to come from the old Norse word for wheel, houl.
'Tide' comes from Old English tid, meaning 'division of time.
 
So midwinter was a time when the wheel of the sun turned again to bring forward a new time, i.e. the days begin to get longer again and people could look forward to welcoming the sun back

The time of winter solstice celebrations were often referred to as yuletide.

• Yuletide Log

Whilst ancient people were in the midst of darkness, waiting for the wheel to turn they would burn a log. This burning log was to help overcome the darkness, scare away evil spirits and bring good luck for the coming year.

Since it was burning at yuletide it became known as the yuletide log.

• Yuletide, Christmas and New Year

Today, the yuletide log is often associated with Christmas. This isn't surprising since midwinter in the northern hemisphere is very close to the date that Christmas is celebrated. The two festivals have merged into one, with many of the pagan customs and traditions being interwoven into the modern day Christmas celebrations.

A sample Winter Solstice Celebrations speech is included in my June Newsletter of The Powerful Speaker. If you don't already receive it you can subscribe here.

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