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| Waiting for dawn at Stonehenge on the Winter Solstice (photo: Wikimedia: Mike Peel, www.mikepeel.net) |
Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice. Here we will have a mere 8 hours & 59 minutes of daylight, our shortest of the year, with the sun raising at 7:38 am and setting at 4:37 pm (source). This is almost 6 and half hours less sunlight than we see on the Summer Solstice.
Our ancient ancestors marked these days well for their very survival was dependent upon knowing times to plant, harvest, animal migrations, livestock birthing, or other seasonal observances and the solar clock was steady and unchanging in marking the year for them. Structures such as the 5,000 year old Newgrange in Ireland and the Temple of Amun in Karnak, Egypt mark the winter solstice. Other sites are scattered about the entire world from many different peoples and eras that mark the solstices, equinoxes, stars, lunar cycles and more.
You can welcome the sun into your garden and landscape as well with very simple materials and techniques creating your own solar wheel calendar.
Marking the Solstice in Your Garden
- Pick a spot with an unobstructed view to the eastern horizon. A 360 view is even better as you can see and mark sunsets if you wish, but you at least want to see the rising sun.
- Get a stake with a length of rope loosely attached. Length is your choice as it will be half the diameter of the finished wheel calendar.
- Push the stake into the spot that will be the center.
- Materials used are up to you - purchased pavers, found river stones, decorative stakes, or anything else that suits your tastes and garden. There is no right or wrong answer.
- And the exact design is also up to you. You can use smaller stones to mark the circle's circumference by placing a stone at the end of the rope every couple of feet (or as needed) around the circle's edge. I personally only marked the solstices and equinoxes and did not create a full circle.
- Use the same process to mark the solstice - the rope should point directly from the center reference point to the spot where the sun break's the horizon at dawn. Put a special marker there. You can repeat throughout the year for other key days so save your stake and rope.
- I like to use a large flat stepping stone for the center point. Something I can stand or sit on to see the sun rise over my marker on my marked days. Move the stone as needed to mark or remark days.
