The Shortest Day and the Longest Night

The great wheel turns and we hang garlands of light inside and out, bring in evergreen boughs and a tree in token of our confidence that the wheel will continue to turn, the days will lengthen, and Spring will come again.

Solstice--the reason for the season in many religions. 

I took these first two pictures yesterday, as I always schedule my posts the night before. So it's not exactly a solstice sunrise but the day before. And as I hung out, waiting for the sun to show itself, I could see the light spreading into the valley but still the sun was hidden behind a little ridge, It was well after eight and I had a brief flash of the uncertainty our long ago ancestors must have felt as the light was later and later in its return.

And then, oh the joy as it finally broke through!