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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Menu Guide Wedding Weather Subscribe Contact Us December 22, 2005 Long night celebrated Multi-faith assembly gathers to appreciate the sun during the longest night of the year By Robert Plain Ashland Daily Tidings People walk the labyrinth at Trinity Episcopal Church Wednesday night as part of Ashland’s Winter Solstice celebration. Robert Plain | Ashland Daily Tidings Good news, Ashland: From now until summer returns, the days will only be getting longer. While the Gregorian calendar used in the western world may have established Dec. 21 as the first day of winter, astrologically speaking, this day marks the beginning of the end of the darkest time of the year. Wednesday was the winter solstice: The longest night and shortest day of the year. Because of the axis — or tilt — the earth travels around the sun on, different parts of this planet have a more direct vantage point to the sun at different parts of the year. In the summer months, when the days are hot and long, the western hemisphere is tilted towards the sun. During the western hemisphere’s winter months, it is titled away from the sun, resulting in more hours of darkness and less of light. The sun officially set at 4:42 p.m. on Wednesday evening and rose again this morning at 7:37 a.m. With 14 hours and 41 minutes of darkness on Wednesday, this was the official longest night of the year. The winter solstice has been celebrated by various different cultures for at least the last 10,000 years. Many are familiar with the ancient Druids’ Stonehenge monument, a series of stone monoliths in England that captures a beam of sunlight on both the longest and shortest days of the year. And other ancient cultures — from Europe to the Middle East to North America — have constructed their own events to mark this the darkest time of the year. In Ashland, unlike most modern-day western cultures, the winter solstice is still a day to celebrate. “Celebrating the solstice is something the whole community can participate in,” said the Rev. Anne Bartlett, rector for the Trinity Episcopal Church, during a multi-denominational gathering at her church on Wednesday to celebrate the shortest day of the year and discuss what this event means to some of the various different religions around Ashland. The event, which is quickly becoming an annual holiday tradition for many who participate, was attended by many Ashlanders of all varieties of beliefs and faiths. It featured speeches by a Jewish rabbi, a Buddhist monk, a Christian pastor and even someone representing the scientific, or astrological, point of view. “It’s really kind of weird that in 2005 we are still celebrating the solstice,” said Richard Moeschl, who spoke to the group about the Celtic, Druid and astrological traditions associated with the winter solstice. He joked, “Hallmark has completely ignored it; there are no shopping days until the solstice.” Ashland resident Britt Ivy kneels in the center of the labyrinth at Trinity Episcopal Gardens on Wednesday evening during the church’s Winter Solstice celebration. Rob Worfel| For the Tidings On a more seriousnote, Moeschl, who is the arts and entertainment editor for the Ashland Daily Tidings and Mail Tribune, added that it makes perfect sense that so many cultures have designed a holiday to coincide with the dark part of the year. He said humans need a celebration when the natural light is at its lowest illumination. “If we had no religious tradition this time of year it would really turn up the pressure on us,” he said. “It’s a great testament to humans as to what we came up with. We have every reason to be cranky and self-absorbed yet we have designed a tradition in which we do the exact opposite. Nobody told us we had to be nice this time of year. We give gifts to people we don’t even like and send cards to people we can’t even remember.” David Zaslow, a rabbi with the Havurah Synagogue in Ashland, spoke about how the Jewish calendar is based on the moon but is adjusted every four years to coincide with the sun. Rather than having a leap year with an extra day in February, this religion repeats this month every four years. This is why Hanukkah was celebrated close to Thanksgiving last year and this year starts on Dec. 25. “In Judaism the sun and the moon represent archetypal forces in the world,” he said. The sun, he said, represents the great empires and power, while the moon represents education and humility. Hanukkah, he said, comes from the Hebrew word for education. He said while it seems like humans can see better in the light, any astronomer will tell you that, in fact, we can see much more at night. “The light obliterates seeing,” he said. “It’s in the darkness that we can see great distances.” Lama Yeshe Parke, who came to represent the Buddhist tradition, said her system of belief operates by a lunar tradition, rather than a solar one. Therefore, she said, the Buddhists have no particular relationship with the solstice in particular. Rev. Bartlett said the Christian tradition made a decision many years ago to celebrate the birth of Jesus at the same time as the solstice. “What the church did was said let’s symbolically have [Jesus] born to coincide with this celebration of the pagan world,” she said, noting that only two of the four gospels in the Bible make mention of the baby Jesus being born in Bethlehem on the darkest night of the year. She said her god sees the dark and the light as one, or at least to halves to the same whole with neither being good or bad. Many people came to the Trinity Episcopal Church to walk through their labyrinth, which is a kind of walking maze that acts as a metaphor for life. “It’s a kind of walking ritual that people from any spiritual path can participate in,” Bartlett said. “We really want people to use it.” Ashland actually has two labyrinths, and there was a solstice party at the location of the other on Wednesday, as well. Nine miles up on Dead Indian Memorial Road, at the EarthTeach Forest, the Cotton family, who have preserved this swath of forest for all to enjoy, host a bonfire every year to mark the solstice. Their celebration features a bonfire and a communal pot of chili that anyone can add their secret recipe to. “Whatever chili people bring gets added to the pot,” Nikki Cotton said. “The flavor changed all night long.” Despite the inclement weather, about 50 people came to mark the shortest day of the year. “The fire was blazing,” she said, describing it as 12-foot tall by 12-foot wide fire pit that burns every year for at least the last 10 through the longest night of the year. “As soon as we started the ceremony the rain stopped and it stopped the whole time we were there,” she added. “The whole idea of this fire is that it is to light the way.” Nikki’s brother-in-law Pete leads a ceremony to light the fire, which she said is a kind of metaphor for encouraging the sun to return. Pete said the fire represents youth when it is just starting to burn. When it is burning brightest it represents adulthood. And when it begins to die down it represents “elderhood” and that is when it really starts to tell the story. At EarthTeach Forest, they light the bonfire in unison from the four directions: North, South, East and West. This, said Nikki Cotton, is to “honor the Native American traditions” and “to give gratitude to Mother Earth.” The solstice celebration in Ashland continues tonight when Moeschl will host a lecture on the solstice from the astrological/religious perspective. “We’ll wax a little scientific and a little spiritual,” he said. Staff writer Robert Plain can be reached at 482-3456 x 226 or [email protected] DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Free Music Downloads Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks Online Casinos FREE Entertainment Guide Calenders 2006 Calendar Women's & Men's Slippers Accelerate Weightloss Products best online casino tcg student loan consolidation teleconferencing Myspace Layouts cortisol; weight loss Diamonds Futures Broker Bad Credit Loans Auto & Personal Loans Search Engine Optimization Southern Oregon Loans Sportsbook Ztech Media Hosting Student Loans Hotel & Airline Reservations African Safari Security Systems Helzberg Diamonds Online Casinos Community Student Loans Bonus Casino ink cartridges Mortgage Calculator Mailing Lists Mystery Shopping Jobs Debt Consolidation Loans Canadian Pharmacy Casino Gambling Sites Backpacks Click Here .:Advertisements:. 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