Should we celebrate Winter Solstice?

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Presurmksdimnds

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However mildly?

This morning I received an enewsletter from my daughters teacher (public school) and it mentioned:

“Last, we will be having a winter solstice breakfast celebration on Friday, December 20th from 8:30-9:30.”

When I first read it, I didn’t want her to participate out of spite. It feels unfair to me that we recognize and celebrate so many holidays, calling them by name, but Christmas isn’t given that same respect. It’s “winter break”, and the children surely won’t be learning about the birth of Christ, for example.

But then I think, it’s just a change of season thing. She’s in fourth grade, learning about seasons, habitats, environments - and I’m sure that’s what they’ll be talking about, not some pagan God.

Spite is not a good enough reason, yet I still feel a bit uneasy about it. Would there be any harm in allowing her to participate? Or should I just take her to donuts and hot cocoa that morning and bring her in late?
 
Well, this is an opportunity for you to teach your own children a history lesson on how Christmas (which was not even on the calendar until about 273), got to be placed where it is today. No, it is not the calendar date when the Church Fathers actually thought Our Lord was born.

Here is one account of how both the feast an the date were ultimately chosen:
christianitytoday.com/ch/news/2000/dec08.html

The teacher could note that many religions have festivals to mark the turning points of the solar year, which is cultural knowledge that well-educated people ought to have, whether they celebrate these festivals themselves or not.

This is not a bad time to teach your children how our liturgical year is based on the solar year. Christmas is loosely associated with the physical turn of the seasons, but Easter is calculated very directly by use of both solar and lunar calendars. It is quite interesting.
 
Can you ask a bit about it? As you say, they are learning about meteorology and “solstice” is a science term as well as a religious one.

I’m thinking the teacher/school is just trying to come up with a fun tie-in for the unit lessons and a way to have a bit of a celebration of whatever winter holidys a student may recognize without running foul of the PC crowd.

How about volunteering to help - or bring in donuts for the class. Then you’ll be there and see exactly what’s going on. When mine were little, I always volunteered for the winter party and then I could do things like bring in nativity coloring pages or talk about our family traditions just like others talked about Diwali or other winter holidays.

PS-most of the non-Christian winter holidays are based on lunar calendars and so can be anytime from late September to January - just as Hanukkah was in November this year. (And the way Easter is a very movable feast!)
 
EasterJoy said:
Well, this is an opportunity for you to teach your own children a history lesson on how Christmas (which was not even on the calendar until about 273), got to be placed where it is today. No, it is not the calendar date when the Church Fathers actually thought Our Lord was born.

Here is one account of how both the feast an the date were ultimately chosen:
christianitytoday.com/ch/news/2000/dec08.html

The teacher could note that many religions have festivals to mark the turning points of the solar year, which is cultural knowledge that well-educated people ought to have, whether they celebrate these festivals themselves or not.

This is not a bad time to teach your children how our liturgical year is based on the solar year. Christmas is loosely associated with the physical turn of the seasons, but Easter is calculated very directly by use of both solar and lunar calendars. It is quite interesting.
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As a person who does mark annually the 2 Solstices: Winter in December (also called Yule), and Summer in June… and the 2 Equinoxes: Autumn in September, and Spring in March… as well as 4 more cross-quarter days: October 31 (Samhain), February 2 (Imbolc), May 1 (Beltane) and August 1 (Lammas), I’d like to thank you very much for providing some high-quality, well-researched facts.

I am very grateful for this. 🙂 May your celebration of Christmas be a sacred, joyful time for you and yours!
 
EasterJoy said:
Well, this is an opportunity for you to teach your own children a history lesson on how Christmas (which was not even on the calendar until about 273), got to be placed where it is today. No, it is not the calendar date when the Church Fathers actually thought Our Lord was born.

Here is one account of how both the feast an the date were ultimately chosen:
christianitytoday.com/ch/news/2000/dec08.html

The teacher could note that many religions have festivals to mark the turning points of the solar year, which is cultural knowledge that well-educated people ought to have, whether they celebrate these festivals themselves or not.

This is not a bad time to teach your children how our liturgical year is based on the solar year. Christmas is loosely associated with the physical turn of the seasons, but Easter is calculated very directly by use of both solar and lunar calendars. It is quite interesting.
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It really is interesting. A priest once pointed out to me how creation itself echoes the Scriptures in the liturgical year. Jesus’ birthday is celebrated on December 25th, just after the winter solstice. John the Baptist’s birthday is celebrated on June 24th, just after the summer solstice. It gives new meaning to John’s words “He must increase, I must decrease.” Once the winter solstice hits, the days only get longer and longer, and the light gets brighter and brighter. Would that Christ’s light gets brighter and brighter in our hearts. 🙂
 
Per Wikipedia, there are several references to Dec 25 that are earlier than the 273 date given by the above article:
Irenaeus (c. 130–202) viewed Christ’s conception as March 25 in association with the Passion, with the nativity nine months after on December 25.[87] Hippolytus of Rome (170–235) may also have identified December 25 for the birth of Jesus and March 25 for the conception.[7][88] Sextus Julius Africanus (c. 160–c. 240) identified December 25, later to become the most widely accepted date of celebration, as the date Jesus’ birth in 221.
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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas
 
I think when we go from celebrating the Creator to celebrating the creation, we’ve crossed into very murky territory.
 
I won’t celebrate anything overtly pagan but Winter Solstice isn’t really a pagan as much as seasonal holiday. I would go with what other posters stated that’s it’s an oportunity to teach your kids the origins of Christmas. Turn it into a possitive thing.
 
Jenny35 said:
I think when we go from celebrating the Creator to celebrating the creation, we’ve crossed into very murky territory.
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I can’t imagine your opinion of Groundhog’s Day. 😉 😃

Seriously, though, there is nothing wrong with having doughnuts when the solstice comes around, or the new moon, or Tax Day, or March Madness, or whatever. It’s not Opening Day of baseball season or anything, but kids do not usually put too much weight on what reason is used as an excuse to get out the doughnuts.
 
WInter solstice----- only in America ---- Please do not be fooled by this !!!

the only celebrated holiday in most countries in December is Christmas.

I think there is a hidden agenda in all of this.

When I came to the US and heard about people celebrating WInter Solstice…it just shocked me…

WHen you accept these things… It will become normal to you. WInter break is supposed to be Christmas break… and Spring break is supposed to be Holy Week and Easter break… That is how it is in most catholic countries…
 
It is hardly likely that anyone here has failed to notice that the US is not and has never been a Catholic country. Even where Christmas is/was allowed in schools, the religious aspect was stripped away long ago, alas.
 
EasterJoy said:
It is hardly likely that anyone here has failed to notice that the US is not and has never been a Catholic country. Even where Christmas is/was allowed in schools, the religious aspect was stripped away long ago, alas.
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well if not Catholic…at least it was a Christian country before…now a lot of people are trying to move away from Christianity …putting an importance to winter solstice is one of them…
 
Mayita30 said:
well if not Catholic…at least it was a Christian country before…now a lot of people are trying to move away from Christianity …putting an importance to winter solstice is one of them…
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I think the poor teachers are trying to find an excuse to have a party. Our boys were at a school that called their Halloween party a “harvest festival”.
 
It sounds like the teacher is using the celebration in the context of the seasons - I wouldn’t object on those grounds, personally.

My family relies on solar energy for cooking year round - we love the solstice because it marks the turnaround to longer cooking times! Of course, we’re in the middle of the Nativity fast, so there’s no donuts…but always at least a big “hurrah”! 😃
 
While most pagan groups observe the winter solstice they often have different meanings for it. I highly doubt you kid will learn about pagan religion, this is probably just a PC way they can have a Christmas event without angering the militant atheists who just want to rain on every ones parade these days.
 
Presurmksdimnds said:
However mildly?

This morning I received an enewsletter from my daughters teacher (public school) and it mentioned:

“Last, we will be having a winter solstice breakfast celebration on Friday, December 20th from 8:30-9:30.”

When I first read it, I didn’t want her to participate out of spite. It feels unfair to me that we recognize and celebrate so many holidays, calling them by name, but Christmas isn’t given that same respect. It’s “winter break”, and the children surely won’t be learning about the birth of Christ, for example.

But then I think, it’s just a change of season thing. She’s in fourth grade, learning about seasons, habitats, environments - and I’m sure that’s what they’ll be talking about, not some pagan God.

Spite is not a good enough reason, yet I still feel a bit uneasy about it. Would there be any harm in allowing her to participate? Or should I just take her to donuts and hot cocoa that morning and bring her in late?
Click to expand...
Is there any way you can attend? This smells like Common Core to me and just another way to kick out Christmas from student lives. I can’t think of any good reason why it’s ok to “celebrate” the shortest day of the year and not ok to celebrate the birth of the Savior of Mankind. 🤷
 
Catholic1954 said:
Is there any way you can attend? This smells like Common Core to me and just another way to kick out Christmas from student lives. I can’t think of any good reason why it’s ok to “celebrate” the shortest day of the year and not ok to celebrate the birth of the Savior of Mankind. 🤷
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Because the shortest day of the year is not up for debate, what Jesus was is. That said I dont agree with the Christmas phobia in today’s public schools, whats wrong with throwing up a Christmas tree, realy, I mean it dosnt bother me as a non-christian to see festive Christmas stuff about.
 
Mayita30 said:
WInter solstice----- only in America ---- Please do not be fooled by this !!!

the only celebrated holiday in most countries in December is Christmas.

I think there is a hidden agenda in all of this.

When I came to the US and heard about people celebrating WInter Solstice…it just shocked me…

WHen you accept these things… It will become normal to you. WInter break is supposed to be Christmas break… and Spring break is supposed to be Holy Week and Easter break… That is how it is in most catholic countries…
Click to expand...
Several well-known religions and cultures have holidays in December. Since the US is not and has never been a Catholic country, we can’t expect only our holidays to be recognized. The US is now a very multi-cultural country, and if the OPs area is anything like mine, 3 or 4 different well-known holidays could be celebrated by the class in question.

As I said earlier, this is very likely the teacher’s way of having a class party without running up against any school-district rules. The winter solstice is a specific date marking a scientific event. She could just as easily be celebrating the discovery of radium. :rolleyes:
 
Will this type of silliness and PC thought ever get played out. I would sit my child from such a silly and blatant hypocrisy.
 
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