Be Not Afraid

Happy Winter Solstice!

While there is nothing on the Filianic Calendar for the winter solstice, this has been a significant day in the northern hemisphere since time immemorial. This is one of the days where "the sun stands still" -- where the sun has been moving further along the horizon with every rising, now it rises and sets at the same place for roughly three days before beginning the return trip along the horizon toward the summer solstice point.

Traditionally this is ghost season. To some Filianis, the Winter Solstice is one of the great 'Gates' of the year: "the two points of entry and exit from the world-cavern in which we exist" (Chapel of Our Mother God). While today we think of a veil that thins during ghost seasons such as at Halloween, our pagan ancestors thought of this time period as a time out of time -- much the same as we view Hiatus -- a blank left so the solar and lunar calendars could realign (the lunar year is about eleven days short of the solar year). Days of the year not under the rule of time and the calendar were naturally the province of the otherworld, therefore the days surrounding the winter solstice and later Christmas were a ghost season where both the dead and non-human spirits of the otherworld roamed free. Everyone must be on their best behaviour, both to avoid accidentally giving offense to an invisible visitor, but also in case you might impress one of those visitors who could bless you with abundance and good luck in the coming year!