Winter Solstice: Saturday is The Shortest Day of the Year

By Alex Gronke/Patch Stafff — One doesn’t have to be a druid or belong to a coven to want to celebrate the longest night of the year.
The winter solstice, which is Saturday, marks the point in Earth’s orbit when the North Pole tilts furthest from the sun. It’s when the sun appears to stop moving south and begin moving north. The word "solstice" comes from combining the Latin words for sun (sol) and stop (stit).

In the Bay Area, this means the sun will rise at 7:12am to and set at 4:44pm, offering us 572 minutes of its shiny self, compared to 887 minutes on the longest day of the year.

This article from Space.com offers a more complete explanation of the astronomy behind the solstice, but the various winter solstice events in the Bay Area take their inspiration from the prescientific era of human history.

Reclaiming, a community of Wiccans, is holding a solstice eve celebration at Ocean Beach in San Francisco today. This is the event that in years past has run afoul of Golden Gate National Recreation Area authorities by making a big, blazing bonfire the centerpiece of the ceremony. The Reclaiming website is clear that Friday’s celebration will not include a fire. Details are here.

Muir Woods in Marin on Saturday has an all-day solstice celebration complete with Morris dancing, crafts, stories, songs and a ceremonial fire. It starts at 10:30 a.m. and ends at 5:30 p.m.

Also Saturday, Reclaiming is organizing a “sing up the sun”gathering in Tilden Park in Berkeley at 6:40 a.m. Reclaiming advises participants to “bring drums, shakers, tambourines, flutes, tubas, etc. and maybe a thermos of hot beverage. If you have a favorite sun-song, bring lyrics to share, and we usually do a spiral dance just after dawn.” Details about where to meet are here.

Less explicitly spiritual, but also in Tilden Park, the East Bay Regional Park District is organizing an early morning hike to“meet the solstice” on Saturday morning. The hike starts at 6:15 a.m. at the Environmental Educational Center near the Little Farm. Bring a thermos of coffee and solstice stories.

If you’d prefer to have your own solstice celebration, the National Park Service offers this Solstice DIY Guide. It has a recipe for Solstice Cider and the words to “The Twelve Days of Solstice” for those who may wish to do some solstice caroling.