Usually December 22.
Aisha's Moonlit Walk
A fictional modern-day family celebrates eight pagan holidays over the course of a year.
Winter solstice is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Traditionally, it is a time of both foreboding and expectancy, as the longest night leads to the return of the sun. “Solstice” in Latin means “the sun standing still.”
The Winter Solstice has become important to both humanists and pagans, who can find common ground in celebrating this occasion. Themes can include light amid darkness; the death of nature and the cycle of life; the darkness just before the dawn; the miracle of every birth.
Faith Without Borders
For everything there is a season—a time to die and a time to be born. With the arrival of winter’s low dark sky, communities around the world look to the miracle of light as a sign of rebirth and a source of hope. We celebrate the promise of new life and recommit ourselves to the protection of everyone’s right to his or her own radiant humanity.
Celebrating the winter holidays is an excellent opportunity for Unitarian Universalist congregations to express their commitment to our Sixth Principle: We covenant to affirm and promote the goal of world community with peace, liberty and justice for all. See Sixth Principle Resources for winter holidays.
From Tapestry of Faith Curricula
Unitarian Universalist Perspectives
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The fulcrum of the Earth tilts toward goodness and I will ride along…Reading | By Jennifer Pratt-Walter | December 13, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Beauty, Earth, Earth-Centered, Good, Nature, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Love this world, she whispers.Poetry | By Rebecca Ann Parker | November 30, 2023 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Beauty, Brokenness, Earth, Love, Wholeness, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder, WorshipWeb, Worship -
Perhaps for a moment the typewriters will stop clicking, the wheels stop rolling the computers desist from computing, and a hush will fall over the city....Poetry | By Rebecca Ann Parker | November 21, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Beauty, Direct Experience, Earth-Centered, Interdependence, Love, Mystery, Sacred, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule -
Do not be afraid of the darkness. Dark is the rich fertile earth that cradles the seed, nourishing growth. Dark is the soft night that cradles us to rest. Only in darkness can stars shine across the vastness of space. Only in darkness is the moon's dance so clear....Reading | By Stephanie Noble | November 19, 2019 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Beauty, Earth, Earth-Centered, Nature, Secular, Winter, Winter Solstice / Yule -
Night has its own kind of beauty, different than the beauty of day. Night is a time of sleep and dreams and inward visions, A time of pause within activity. Darkness is an invitation to imagining and storytelling, And to using ears instead of eyes to listen to the world in its stillness....Meditation | By Gary Kowalski | June 3, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Balance, Beauty, Death, Earth-Centered, Imagination, Listening, Mystery, Searching, Silence, Solitude, Summer Solstice, Vision, Winter Solstice / Yule -
There once was a child who got lost in the woods. As night began to descend, the child became more and more frightened. I’m sure any of us would be frightened too, in that situation, but what made this child even more frightened, was that he had always been afraid of the dark. He was more afraid...Story | By Sheri Phillabaum | January 25, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Awe, Beauty, Courage, Fear, Halloween, Samhain, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder -
Emmanuel means "God is with us." Who is your Emmanuel? Who is your "God is with us," the one you were promised, the one you have been waiting for? For the ancient prophet Isaiah, he was a boy soon to be born who would guide the people of Judah back to peace and harmony with God....Meditation | By Sarah Movius Schurr | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWebTagged as: Advent, Beauty, Belief, Christianity, Christmas Eve / Christmas, Direct Experience, God, Listening, Searching, Tradition, Transcendence, Winter Solstice / Yule, Wonder