How a 5,200-year-old festival is celebrated in modern times
Newgrange in Co Meath: In the winter solstice, the rising sun beams a ray of light, 19m long, into the Neolithic monument.
At 5,200 years old, and older than the Great Pyramids, Newgrange in Co Meath becomes an international focal point this winter solstice as the rising sun beams a ray of light, 19m long, into the Neolithic monument.
Our pre-Christian ancestors all celebrated this time of year as the light slowly returned, until the festival merged into Christmas in more recent centuries.
But in 2022, there are still plenty of people who mark this time of year with everything from sunrise swims to silent, solo retreats. Here are four people who mark the winter solstice.
Known to some as President Michael D Higgins’ yoga teacher, Michael Ryan has been following the Celtic calendar, and its various festivals and solstices for a decade now.
“Over the period I'll go on retreat for that week, I'll go west. I try to do that a couple of times a year, those marks on the calendar are pretty significant,” says Michael.
For some, winter solstice might seem like a far-off thing, but for Michael, it’s “straightforward”.
“Winter solstice is the point where light pierces the darkness, it has a universality to it, it's simple, straightforward, just light,” says Michael.
“I find it a very profound time,” he adds.
On his winter solstice retreat, he will have no real contact with people and it’ll be all about the “quiet, quiet, quiet, sitting, dropping in”.
And he admits for most people the possibility of such stillness is not readily on the cards.
“That's our big struggle these days with lots of things coming at us at all times, there are legitimate reasons to have the phone on at all times.”
While he was always drawn to spirituality, and “would have gone to seminaries as a teenager”, it was a hip injury that brought him to yoga.
And it’s something he has introduced to some of his lifelong friends too.
“The guys I grew up with who are my old friends, the only way I got them into a yoga class was when they came to my stag, and the slagging I would get normally, but after the class they were like: ‘wow’,” explains Michael.
For anyone else reluctant to explore things like rest at winter solstice, Michael says “it’s important to just pause and contemplate”.
“The question is how are you doing, how’s your mental health, are you enjoying your life? I know a lot of people who are hanging on by a thread or whose life is just not fulfilling.
“I do men's retreats, there's a lot of struggle out there,” says Michael.
“These practices help bring us back to balance,” he adds.
See Michael on Instagram @michaelryan_thewayhome.
For multi-disciplinary artist Ruth Smith, the winter solstice is one of her favourite points on the ancient Celtic calendar, which she has been following for a few years now.
“I feel a much stronger connection to the winter solstice than I do to its summer counterpart.
“I think it's got a lot to do with the invitation of the winter solstice to go inwards, to rest and reflect. I relish that it comes at a time that is quite full and busy," says Ruth, who is based in the west of Ireland.
There is a line in Brendan Kennelly’s poem Begin that epitomises the winter solstice for Ruth:
“Though we live in a world that dreams of ending that always seems about to give in something that will not acknowledge conclusion insists that we forever begin”.
“I think that's what the threshold of the winter solstice is for me, it's that delicate rebirth of life in the darkest time of year, that glimmer of hope, the summer ahead, the turning of the wheel, it's amazing balance of such darkness with all this potentiality of light,” says Ruth.
On the day itself, she will take to the Atlantic Ocean in the early hours.
“This solstice I'm going to go for a dawn dip in Galway Bay with my amazing swim buddy Annie Marie so that we can meet the morning light. Then we're going to have a well-earned sauna after to warm our bones,” says the artist.
She also says the winter solstice is a “really rich time of reflection and inquiry” for her.
“On a personal note, this time last year, I had a very dark Samhain [into] winter solstice time and looking back I realise how much I learned about myself, my capacity, but most importantly what needed to die, what I needed to let go of in order to move and evolve and that's the intelligence of this kind of work,” says Ruth.
See Ruth on Instagram @theruthsmith.
Kate Gaffey moved her life from Dublin city centre to the west, having followed the Celtic calendar and its various festivals and solstices. While she works in corporate wellness, and online, she is now bringing this “seasonal awareness” into the corporate space.
And she says this time of year, the winter solstice, is about darkness and personal inquiry.
“What are those quiet little thoughts I've had myself? What are the things I've pushed out because they're not safe, there's risk?
“At a practical level, it falls at Christmas, it's quiet, you might be able to down tools for a while and stop and lean into that space of darkness, and give yourself time to feel into things that aren't working,” says Kate.
“Because what's the flip side if we don't make these pockets of time? We keep going, pushing things away, then that gets louder and louder,” she adds.
For the last eight years, Kate has gone on retreat around this time of year.
“It consists of me taking myself off to some remote part of Ireland, giving myself time in nature, time in the darkness, limited time on my phone, no TV, and the question is: what does my heart yearn for?
“For others, it could be walking the land, lighting fires, creating a sense of safety, and making space to let these things out,” says Kate.
On the day of December 21 itself, Kate will mark it by visiting a sacred site.
“When I'm on the east coast I'd visit Tara Hill. In the west, I'm going to try to find a new spot, maybe Croagh Patrick, or some standing stones, do a little ritual and offer my gratitude to the land,” says Kate.
For others, for whom retreats or sacred sites are not an option she suggests getting an hour of daylight outside at this time of year, maybe not getting out of bed at 6am for the gym, and to take some guilt-free time out on the couch with some Roses.
“There's a little bit of magic at this time of year, when the winter solstice and Christmas almost overlap,” says Kate.
See Kate on Instagram @kategaffey.
Maggie McKeever plans to take December 21 off work.
“On winter solstice itself I’m planning on taking the day off and I like to gather with friends.
“We’re talking about going to a sacred site, the place that I’m thinking about going to this winter solstice is Slieve Gullion [Co Armagh] which on the top there’s a passage tomb, known as the cailleach’s [Irish for old woman, witch or hag] cave,” says Maggie, a trauma-informed yoga facilitator who works both out of Belfast and online.
“I’d like to go up and visit the cailleach and get out in nature and turn my phone on airplane mode, gather with some friends and most importantly, have a bit of craic, because this time of year can feel a little bit heavy,” adds Maggie.
The 12-month ancient Celtic calendar, or Celtic wheel, which includes the winter solstice period and follows the cycles of nature, is also a major part of Maggie’s work and life.
She recognises the winter solstice as a period of deep rest.
“I think there is something really symbolic about winter solstice, this kind of void space on the calendar, where we're slowly, gradually plummeting into the darkest time of the year, and our moods can kind of drop as well and there can be a weight, a heaviness,” says Maggie.
Whether people are even aware of this ancient calendar or not, “almost everyone” she has spoken to since November is feeling tired.
“In our society that platforms productivity and this capitalist culture that we should always be striving and things should be bigger and better all the time, it doesn't actually value that fallow time when we're tired,” says Maggie.
“There's something comforting about knowing it's OK not to have everything sorted, to not feel energetic, we're not actually supposed to,” she adds.
Maggie says this time of year is about “slowing down and resting”, and “shredding and surrendering” where the darkness illuminates “what’s not working” in our lives.
See Maggie on Instagram @maggiemckeeveryoga.
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