Winter is upon us once more, which means it’s time for a certain winter holiday to implore us to buy presents for our loved ones and, if need be, die on its behalf. But winter holidays have been around for much longer than that particular day and there are many ways to celebrate the end of winter. Let’s explore some of them!
Saturnalia
If you’ve seen Caligula, you already know that the ancient Romans were party animals! Okay, yes, that film is a gigantic exaggeration and portraying the Roman Empire as a decadent, hedonistic den of pleasure is a tad reductive, the ancient Romans knowing how to party is a certified historical fact!
Saturnalia was a seven day feast celebrating the god Saturn whom the Romans stole borrowed from their Greek neighbors. It involved gift-giving, gambling, a lot of drinking, a lot of dancing, and even naked caroling!
Dongzhi Festival
The ancient and modern Chinese prefer to party down with this delicious solstice party! Families reunite and spend time together eating brightly colored balls of sweet glutinous rice served in a savory broth or special dumplings, if you happen to be in the north. The more traditional folks might gather at their ancestral temples along with other people who share their surname for special worship ceremonies.
Because China is a big place, there are plenty of regional variations for this holiday but the broader core elements are essentially the same. Family, great food, a warm place to gather together – what more could you want?
Lohri
For hundreds of years, the people of the Punjab region in India have celebrated this solstice festival by lighting bonfires to celebrate the coming of longer days. In some places, people create little images of the Lohri goddess (though not eveyrwhere) and special sugarcane sweets are handed out to delighted children and adults.
People sing special folk songs to celebrate the day, accompanied by dances and fun. Fire is central to the festival, and people continue the celebration until the bonfires burn out.
The Misery of Winter, The Hope of Spring
The nights are long, the days are short, and everything is dying. And yet, throughout the history of human civilization, we have celebrated hope in this darkest, coldest season. 2020 has been a difficult year for a lot of us and as of this writing we’re still in the grip of a global pandemic that keeps us from safely being together with our family in the usual way. Yet there is hope. This won’t last forever, and eventually will just be a bad memory we tell to the younger generations who will swear we are exaggerating when we tell them about AI-proctored college exams and people comparing wearing masks to being mass-exterminated in actual gas chambers. Take hope, my friends, for this season is long and dark and scary.
But just like winter, it can’t last forever.