How Wild Women Celebrate the Winter Solstice: Rituals, Traditions & More

Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year, falls on December 21 or 22 in the Northern Hemisphere and June 20 or 21 in the Southern.

Most often, winter solstice celebrations honored the symbolism of fire and light, along with life, death, the rising sun, and the moon. Saturnalia, for example, was an ancient Roman pagan festival dedicated to honoring the sun god Saturn through offerings and gift-giving. Another tradition that we still hear about today is Yule (or Yuletide).

Today, the winter solstice is a reminder to honor our connection to the natural world. It is a way we can celebrate the change in seasons without traditional holidays, gifts, or decorations. Instead, we can honor winter through rituals and self-care, looking specifically to our ancestors and heritage for inspiration rather than co-opting from others (a form of cultural appropriation).

It’s a powerful time of rebirth, as the shortening days of winter finally come to a pause, the Sun hangs at its lowest position in the sky and finally starts its journey back up, the slow ascend towards spring.

One of the biggest themes for this time of the year is restoration. We spend so much time focusing on productivity and destinations throughout the whole year, how often do we give ourselves a chance to deeply reflect on our lives and rest?

1. I love to wake up early on the day of the winter solstice to watch the sunrise. Dress up warm, find a nice spot, close your eyes, feel the sun’s warmth on your face. Observe how the sun lights up the world around you. Bring a journal and write down any thoughts that come to mind (optional since it might be freezing where you are but you can do this after at home too).

2. Create a fun winter feast with warming foods at the night of December 21.

3. Draw a winter solstice bath, adding citrus essential oils to symbolize the energy of the sun.

4. As an alternative (or in addition to) a traditional indoor holiday tree, decorating a live outdoor tree with biodegradable, edible ornaments for birds and other creatures makes for a fun project, especially with kids.
5. My favorite winter solstice art project is making lanterns—one of the most popular winter solstice symbols of adding light to the darkest day of the year. I have an abundance of jars, so I use those and little tea lights and natural decoration. Switching off all the electric lights and doing dinner, homework, bath, story time, and more by the light of flickering candles and warm lantern light makes even mundane activities extra special and spiritual, and also makes the long, dark night more real.
6. Winter solstice traditions and celebrations have carried on and evolved over centuries but one thing is evergreen: reading books! Since books are widely available, people love to spend cold winter nights by the fire and reading up stories for each other, so why not spend a cozy afternoon or evening with your favorite winter themed books (or anything else you love to read)?
7. Do some research on specific pagan yule time and celtic winter solstice symbols and decorate you space according to which is closer to your heart. This might include incorporating a pagan winter solstice symbol—like Candles (Winter Sun), Pine (Healing), Holly (The God), Mistletoe (The Goddess) and the Yule Tree (Renewal)—into your home.
8. I love to welcome the shortest day of the year with a graceful winter solstice yoga sequence. You can find a lot of amazing practices online, but I love to create my own depending on the needs of my body and soul.
9. The winter solstice is considered the seasonal dark night of the soul. Spiritually, it’s a time to honor both the light and the darkness that resides within each of us. Grab a pen and paper and write down the things that you would like to let go of. When finished, burn them, or best: throw them in the yule log fire, transforming darkness into light. After “letting go,” set intentions for the new season ahead—speak aloud a thing, idea, habit, or practice that you would like to bring into your life.
10. I like to draw the rune Wunjo or the rune Gebo on every present I gift with invisible ink or just trace it with my finger, so it brings joy to the person receiving it.

 This traditional warming drink is perfect for sipping during a  solstice celebration (and it makes the house smell incredible).

For this traditional winter solstice drink, simply combine:

• 2 quarts apple cider
• 1 1/2 cups orange juice
• 3/4 cup pineapple juice
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• a dash of ground cinnamon
• a dash of ground cloves

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Discard the cinnamon sticks, pour into mugs, and serve.

A splash of rum or cinnamon whisky won’t hurt either if you’d like to make your drink a bit stronger.