Laura Elly Hudson.jpg

Are you afraid of the dark, or are you a night owl who prefers it? Or maybe like me, you are somewhere in between. I no longer harbor the childhood fears provoked when the night’s mantle obscured my room’s familiar objects. But I never enjoy waking up with swirling thoughts, unable to sleep in the darkest hours before dawn. I like to be awake in the light and asleep in the dark.

Now that we’re in mid-December, by 5 p.m., when I sometimes walk home from work, it’s dark enough to watch the stars appear, and we’re closing in on the longest night of the year. Dec. 21 is the winter solstice. The word “solstice” comes from Latin, combining words that mean “sun” and “stand still.” To astronomers of long ago, it seemed that the sun stood still on the solstice. For millennia, cultures have developed rituals to recognize the winter and summer still points and to honor the spiritual resonance of these natural phenomena. The end of the longest night symbolized the victory of the sun over the darkness and the first hint of the rebirth of spring.

The actual date remains unknown, but as Christianity became institutionalized, Dec. 25 was chosen as the day to celebrate Jesus’ birth, largely because solstice celebrations were so popular. Pre-Christian solstice traditions were incorporated into Christian celebrations and given new names and meanings.

But there is also an overlap in these symbols and their meanings, the rebirth of the sun and the birth of the Savior. Isaiah 9:2, often read on Christmas Eve, begins, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.” Christians interpret this Hebrew scripture with John 1:5 in mind: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”

I love these scriptures and the imagery of Christ’s light. But perhaps, in a world now so flooded with light that star-sightings are rare for many people, it’s time to make peace with the darkness. Solar system science assures us that the sun will not get stuck on the solstice. Maybe we can trust that the darkness is temporary in other ways too. In an era when the future feels uncertain, when the pandemic, climate change and a host of other challenges make collective humanity feel lost in the dark, one thing we do know is that the longest night will end and the light will come again.

This year on the winter solstice, why not let yourself befriend the night? Shut off all the lights and turn off all the screens for an hour or more; rest your eyes and your mind in the still point before the light returns. Treasure the dreams that visit you as you slip into sleep. After all, the absence of light is not the absence of God, and the hiddenness and uncertainty of night are also the conditions of the deep earth, where seeds wait to break open in their season.