Happy Solstice

If you think about it. Everything is really just about how dark it is in December.
We went to a Swedish St Lucia party last week. One of Studyboy's classmates is Swedish so we learned the whole story.
St Lucia is a Catholic Saint, patron of the blind because she had her eyes poked out by a spurned lover. Her feast day is Dec 13. In Sweden, girls wear a crown of candles and sing a song, boys wear a dunce cap with a star and carry a wand. It is the Swedish festival of light. But before Pope Gregory introduced the new calendar and corrected for leap year, Dec 13 was the Winter Solstice, longest, darkest night of the year. So having a Saint with fire hair whose eyes grew back and now she can see in the darkness kind of fits.
Today is Solstice the pagan Festival of Light. We burn candles or Yule logs all night and make wreaths to attract back the sun that has gone for a holiday down south. Can't blame it really.
Later today, thanks to Prince Albert, we're going to haul a tree into the house and cover it with lights and sparkly bits. We call it a Christmas tree, but really, what does a Balsam Fir from Lunenburg County have to do with the birth of a kid in the desert?
Hanukkah finished last week. That was a Festival of Light too. Candles are really popular with everyone at this time of year, especially if the power goes out.
Lights on the house outside, a star on the tree, candles in the window.
Whatever your inclination, burn something today and bring a little enlightenment back into the world.
Happy Solstice