December 20, 2001
Have yourself a merry little solstice
By David Podgurski Staff Writer 
Stamford Advocate

http://www.stamfordadvocate.com/features/scn-sa-solstice1dec20.story?c
oll=stam%2Dfeatures%2Dheadlines

Pagans -- Christmas isn't the only holiday left on the calendar -- tomorrow will be a very important day of celebration because of two things: day and night.

Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice, the year's darkest day and its longest night. of whom Wiccans are probably the most prominent group in America -- Druids (derived from Celtic traditions), and others who belong to Earth-based religions will celebrate the solstice as a high holiday called "Yule." (The freshly cut Yule Log is originally a Druidic practice distilled from Norse and Teutonic customs, a wintry counterpart to summertime bonfire celebrations).

"Yule is really a Norse holiday," says Liz Guerra. "There's certain things Wiccans do during the holidays, while pagan religions are less structured. Depending on what kind of pagan you are, you will celebrate in different ways: You could be Native American, Egyptian or Celtic, and you would do different things to celebrate, though a lot of people tend to follow their ancestral roots."

Following old fertility myths, Dec. 20-23 (the solstice falls on different days according to the Earth's rotation) was a day of celebration in ancient Egypt, Rome and Greece. Almost all ancient cultures celebrated it as a turning point in the year; it is no accident, for example, that Christmas falls near the Roman holiday of Saturnalia. Early Christians did not know the exact date of Jesus' birth, so a compromise was achieved through the borrowing of a festival date from the pagan year, mostly to offer converts a more familiar calendar of worship.

Wicca is perhaps the most familiar system of beliefs within pagan or Earth-based religions, and the most popular -- in Wisconsin recently, a Wiccan was chosen as the chaplain at the state's maximum security prison.

"You know Christianity?" Guerra asks anecdotally. "Well, if you think of Pagans as Christians, then Wiccans would be the Catholics. ... 'System of beliefs' is a good way to describe Wicca: It's fairly new, but based on old beliefs. It really only came into its own in the 20th century."

According to Corey Burke, a 28-year-old graphic designer who has been practicing for 12 years, the Wiccan celebration of Yule is explicitly linked to the Earth and its calendric cycle of birth and rebirth.

"Eight times a year we celebrate the changing of the season," Burke says. "This holiday marks the changing from the darkest time of the year to the rebirth of the sun. ... Wiccans believe that this is the day that the sun is born. Comparably, you can say that in Christianity this is when the god is being born. In Wicca, you celebrate the coming of the sun -- coming near to the end of the winter -- which in the old days would mean less harsh times."

"It (Wicca) is an outcropping of an agrarian society," Burke continues, "when all you had was taking care of the crops, and you went to bed at dusk. We have embraced the earth; it means going back to the old ways of doing things. ...Thus, it is meant to reinforce our connection with the cycle of the earth and the seasons.... Wicca is an everyday thing, though. I make many of my personal choices on the standard that almost every religion has: The idea of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. Whatever you do will come back to you. ... If you give out happiness, you will get happiness in return."

Pagans, a more general descriptive term for practitioners of Earth-based religions, believe in a multideity system, while Wiccans celebrate and believe specifically in a balance with a goddess and a god (although from diverse mythologies), Burke says.

Pagan celebrations are also inflected by national/cultural traditions. Alicia Folberth, president of Bridgeport's Pagan Community Church, has organized her church's celebration this year as a Norse celebration, derived from Scandinavian, Teutonic and Germanic traditions.

"We don't do a celebration where one person gets up and speaks to the
crowd," she says. "There's drumming, singing; one of my folk will be singing 'O Tannenbaum' in German. It lasts about an hour and a half. It's potluck; we're asking for a nonperishable food item that we will donate. We'll be doing some singing, but we usually have a drumming circle, so people should bring their drums."

Folberth is also quick to point out the pagan origins of many Christian traditions.

"The Christmas tree is a pagan custom," Folberth says. "Holly and mistletoe are sacred to the Druids. All of these derive from older religions. The Christians gave the days new names, but they didn't change the customs -- all of us are celebrating a rebirth, a rebirth of the light. Each culture has its own mythology, its own religion. There is a lot of overlap."

Folberth, who started the church six years ago and has been a pagan for 16 years, says that the PCC tries to blend different traditions each year.

"One time we did an Italian tradition, 'Strega,' " she says. "It's like stepping into another culture and country. There's a choice of traditions; for the most part, we combine a variety of traditions. I don't think we're different from other people in that regard ...We come from other faiths and backgrounds. We celebrate with our families and then for ourselves."

One of the more distinct solstice celebrations tomorrow will be a labyrinth walk at New Canaan's First Presbyterian Church sponsored by the Labyrinth Project of Connecticut. The labyrinth is a common symbol across the world -- most medieval churches, for example, either had a labyrinth inside the church or just outside.

The Labyrinth Project of Connecticut takes a portable map of France's Chartres Cathedral and places it on the ground inside the church, allowing people to walk the labyrinth and meditate. Labyrinth walks usually take place on the solstices and equinoxes as well as New Year's Eve.

Helen Curry, president of LPC, says tomorrow's walk will be special.

"The solstice begins with a blessing ceremony that will celebrate the darkness," she says. "Winter is usually a time of going inward. Traditionally, animals hibernate, and we are waiting for the emergence of the spring."

The church will be darkened at a certain point, and then, one by one, candles will be lit.

Curry stresses that the labyrinth walk is a different meditation for different people.

"Everybody comes with their own reasons. Labyrinth walks can be done just as any other meditation can be done: Stress reduction, centering, as a celebration."

Founded in 1993, the Project has a threefold purpose, Curry says. It seeks to educate people about the uses of labyrinths as tools of spiritual growth; to sponsor labyrinth-related events; and to help people create labyrinths for their own use.

The labyrinth walk, Curry notes, can't necessarily be pigeonholed to a particular religion, and roughly 150 people from different walks of life participate in the Winter Solstice walk on average. The Project has also branched out of late; local corporations have expressed interest in sponsoring walks at their workplaces. Curry teaches workshops and has a prison ministry; she brings the labyrinth (painted on canvas) to Danbury Federal Prison once a month for inmates.

"We move in and out of the Christian community with great ease," she says. "It really crosses the line, and I think it's important that people with a Christian background understand that they can be completely comfortable coming to the labyrinth. ... Can you walk every step as a Christian? Allowing a place for transformation is totally in line with any tradition; I don't see any place for conflict."

The labyrinth walk itself is thus less New Age than ancient, a misconceived notion Curry would like to dispel. Though there is a blessing ceremony at the beginning of the celebration, Curry sees the labyrinth more as "a metaphor for life, for one's day-to-day journey."

Folberth, Burke and Guerra are also anxious to correct misconceptions regarding their faiths and celebrations. Many still believe that pagans are Satanists, or, at least, outside the putative religious norm.

"I think there is largely a misunderstanding of Wicca and pagans," Folberth says. "The media have brought out a good bit as far as exposing things apart from what is perceived -- just the fact that 'The Mists of Avalon' was on TV recently is good."

Guerra agrees.

"If you look at all the traditions of Christmas, they're based on pagan rituals," Guerra says. "It's unfortunate that narrow-minded people are celebrating Christmas with pagan traditions and yet have a total misconception about pagans, Wiccans and what have you."

But for Curry and her seasonal celebration, the Winter Solstice is really about the cycle of light and dark -- not necessarily about a religious holiday.

"In our culture, we don't spend much time honoring the darkness," she says. "It's an equal part of our world, you need the darkness to have the light. ... Darkness in and of itself has no intrinsic good or evil connected to it, nor does light; it's simply darkness. And so, of course, at Winter Solstice we are at the darkest point of the year, and you begin to move back into the light. With the labyrinth walks, we are very much celebrating the cycle."

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Each of the above Winter Solstice celebrations is open to the public.