Bah Humbug.
And, Bah Humbug again.
Now there are only four more days. I have no oven, I am sure I have forgotten a million and one Christmas cards.
But then again, that presupposes I have a million and one friends.
Thankfully, I don't.
Which reminds me of Stonehenge and that today is the Winter Solstice.
Why on earth do we have solstices? There's one in the summer too. It is marked as the shortest day of the year, the start of Winter - although meteorologically, the start of winter is 1st December - along with Advent and the start of me and my Bah Humbugging.
The solstice is not the actual day, as many would believe, but the specific moment when the sun is over the Tropic of Capricorn. It is the moment when the sun stands still. Well, it seems to, anyway. The Romans thought the sun had stopped, and called it solstitium.
There's a piece of information to wow your guests with at the dinner table.
The Chinese call 21st December, Dōngzhì. They consume copious amounts of glutinous rice balls, so I am told. I can't blame them, if I was that cold, I'd want to eat copious amounts of glutinous rice balls.
But today, December 21st is not the earliest sunset of the year - that happened a couple of weeks ago. Nor is it the coldest day of the year. Gosh, if it is supposed to be the coldest day of the year - the rest of the year is going to be boiling hot.
Even the cat hid behind the plant pots today.
And what has Stonehenge got to do with it all? What has Stonehenge got to do with Christmas for that matter?
As all the news is filled with Druids at Stonehenge, here's a photo I snapped earlier - devoid of Druids.
Bah Humbug, it was too darned hot 1 degree north today.
Some interesting sites with more information about the Solstice:
The winter solsticeAnd, Bah Humbug again.
Now there are only four more days. I have no oven, I am sure I have forgotten a million and one Christmas cards.
But then again, that presupposes I have a million and one friends.
Thankfully, I don't.
Which reminds me of Stonehenge and that today is the Winter Solstice.
Why on earth do we have solstices? There's one in the summer too. It is marked as the shortest day of the year, the start of Winter - although meteorologically, the start of winter is 1st December - along with Advent and the start of me and my Bah Humbugging.
The solstice is not the actual day, as many would believe, but the specific moment when the sun is over the Tropic of Capricorn. It is the moment when the sun stands still. Well, it seems to, anyway. The Romans thought the sun had stopped, and called it solstitium.
There's a piece of information to wow your guests with at the dinner table.
The Chinese call 21st December, Dōngzhì. They consume copious amounts of glutinous rice balls, so I am told. I can't blame them, if I was that cold, I'd want to eat copious amounts of glutinous rice balls.
But today, December 21st is not the earliest sunset of the year - that happened a couple of weeks ago. Nor is it the coldest day of the year. Gosh, if it is supposed to be the coldest day of the year - the rest of the year is going to be boiling hot.
Even the cat hid behind the plant pots today.
And what has Stonehenge got to do with it all? What has Stonehenge got to do with Christmas for that matter?
As all the news is filled with Druids at Stonehenge, here's a photo I snapped earlier - devoid of Druids.
Bah Humbug, it was too darned hot 1 degree north today.
Some interesting sites with more information about the Solstice:
Ten things about the solstice
Dongzhi
The Winter Solstice (there's a great infographic in this article explaining about the equinoxes)
Stonehenge and the Winter Solstice (in pictures)
No comments:
Post a Comment