Steve’s Virtual Planet

Winter Solstice Introspective

Well it’s the day after the Winter Solstice 2012 … and … hey … we’re still here! All that talk about the world coming to an end?!?! Pah! Fortunately many of us just waved off that kind of stuff but it was still a lot of fun. I was already expecting the typically punditry about the event, but what was most exciting was to see how extensive the celebrations were in different parts of the world.

Stonehedge always has a big event during the Solstice but this year was even bigger. All the extra publicity must have drawn even more people to Salisbury Hill for the party. This site in England has long been a place that we associate with the changing of the seasons as determined by watching the motion of the sun. And this year was no different .. except bigger!

What was really amazing though was the celebration in Mexico and in the Yucatan in particular. The ancient Mayan sites were just alive with joy and celebration. This was in a sense like the New Year for the Mayan people, but even more special since it was the new baktun, number 14 to be exact, in the base 20 system of the Mayan calendar! It’s one of the inner cycles of their calendar, comprised of 144,000 days, about 394 years.

So for at least a little while, here in modern time, people all over the world were paying attention to the motions of the heavens. We used to do that a lot over the eons as we tried to make our calendars work. The Druids and Mayans did this in spectacular fashion of course.

The seasons “go ’round and ’round in the circle game” .. reminding us where we live in the grand scheme of things. The celebration of the Solstice is a celebration of Astronomy!

Clear skies!