16 Most Spectacular Winter Solstice Festivals

Romance perhaps is embodied best in the season of winter than any other. Chilly nights, cool breeze, snowy days and cozy moments of togetherness exemplifies the winter season. These comes together to cast the magical spell of love thus setting the perfect stage for romance. Enhance romance in your love life, let it get precedence over everything else and enjoy the moments of love and togetherness.

Winter, the season of romance is here and the air is brimming with nostalgic feelings of festivity and jovialness. If Summer is the season of fruits, flowers and holidays, Winter is the season of festivals of mirth and joy. Enjoy the moments of togetherness and share the moments of intimacy in front of a fireplace. This can induce the best spell of love for the evening thus turning it out to a romantic evening. Strike the right chord of romance, play the right tune of love and bring about bouts of happiness in your life.

Feel the cool breeze brushing against you as you indulge in romantic activities to spice up your love life. Welcome this season of love as you set forth to share the moments of togetherness. There's an undeniable pleasure to be found in pelting your sweetie with frozen water. Mother Nature casts a sparkling spell, turning the landscape into a winter wonderland. Icicles stretch their icy claws in contrast to the softness of snow-covered fields. Frost fills branches with fairy-like feathers and transforms spiders' webs into fabulous filigree. A time of enchantment, a time for snow-fun and frolics.

Winter is the season of beautiful white snow, and you should make the most of the snow. Winter is beautiful because of the subtle majesty, elegance and pureness of fresh snow, juxtaposed against the crisp blue sky and colorful sunsets blended into foggy, hazy and cloudy skies. Spark a new light of romance and keep the flame of love burning in the cold chilly days with bouts of winter romance. Indulge in hot romance in the cold season and get driven by the falling of love and being loved.

After all, man has always celebrated certain moments of the year to remember the deep relationship with nature and December is one of the months richest in celebrations in the world.

The solstice is therefore seen as an opportunity to be together, give thanks or meditate, ready to welcome the arrival of the new year and all the good things it will bring. In Northern Europe, this is also the best time to spot another solar-related phenomenon: the Northern Lights.

All the popular festivals of this period, throughout the month of December, are characterised by the ritual use of fire.

The month of December is filled with festivities and traditions that originate from every corner of the world. From Christmas lights throughout Europe to parties celebrating the winter solstice, here's a guide to the celebrations you shouldn't miss before we officially say goodbye to the year.

Just as the summer solstice marks the longest day of the year, the winter solstice falls on the shortest day of the year. And it marks the beginning of astronomical winter. In the Northern Hemisphere, this year it will fall on December 22. A day when the light of the Sun will touch in many places for just 8 hours and 46 minutes.

The solstices have been known since ancient times and celebrated as a rite of passage from one season to another, celebrating the arrival of winter and the season that will follow it, spring.

From the Saturnalia of Ancient Rome to traditions of Celtic origin, the winter solstice is a December celebration with primitive roots. That still survives in several countries.

For example, one of the oldest known festivals is the Roman Saturnalia, in honor of Saturn, the god of agriculture. For a week, banquets, games and various celebrations were held with exchanges of gifts to welcome the rebirth of nature, linked to the Sun as a source of energy for daily activities. In this period, the traditional social order was subverted and slaves did not work, there was peace in the case of fights between adverse feuds and people played for days.

In Umbria and throughout central Italy during some dates of this month, such as the night of Santa Barbara, the night of Santa Lucia and the nights near Christmas, it is customary to light large open fires, called Foconi. The wood used to light these large night fires is oak wood.

The Oak is the plant of the winter solstice that the Celts and Greeks considered the Cosmic tree, the axis of the world capable of uniting the sky to the earth. The tree of the goddess Demeter who with her acorns was the first food of human beings, from the acorns in fact a flour was obtained and a bread was obtained.

The tradition that sees the lighting of the Foconi outside, on the hills and in the squares of the villages for the entire period from the winter solstice until the night of the Epiphany, serves to re-establish the bond in the community and between man and Nature. A pact of union that the presence of the Oak, as a tree axis of the world, makes stronger.

The heat of the fire, which is the hope of life, then enters the houses with the ritual of the Solstice log or Christmas log, in central Italy. On the evening of Christmas Eve, an oak log is placed in the fireplace and it is said: rejoice the log, tomorrow is the day of Bread, every grace of God enters this house, let the wheat and flour abound and fill the basin with wine.

The log must burn until dawn, but not burn completely because it must be relit every night, until Epiphany so that it brings good luck. At the end of Epiphany it will then be kept in the house for a whole year. This will be the log with which the fire will be lit all winter to heat the house and to bake bread.

All the recipes cooked during the winter solstice have wheat and rice as their main ingredient, as on the night of Saint Lucia where saffron-colored breads are prepared and the wheat is often combined with dried fruit and legumes.

The recipe for pampepato or panpepato is a Christmas dessert that in Umbria at Christmas is on all tables. The recipe is very old, a spiced bread, to give it the shape of sacredness in the gift, as in that distant time was the gift of the Magi. In Umbria the differences between the recipes are many, so much so that both the panpepato of Terni and that of Spoleto and Foligno
are considered typical.

The latter is made with a lot of flour, so that it looks like a spiced bread. Instead, the one from Terni has very little flour, but is much richer in ingredients, including liqueurs (rosolio and rum), cooked must and coffee.

The recipe for Pampepato is made starting from December 8, the day of the Immaculate Conception. And tradition dictates that at least one of them must be kept in the pantry until Easter, awaiting the feast of the Resurrection.

A marvel of traditions traveling between Central Italy, Greece and ancient Celtic peoples.

1. Sankranti bonfires, India

In India, the winter solstice used to be celebrated on the exact day, but in recent times it has been postponed to January 13, before Makar Sankranti, a festival dedicated to the sun god Surya. In this case, homage is paid to light, fire, and the sun, symbols of the end of darkness. In the days leading up to it, firewood is gathered in preparation for the giant bonfires that will be lit during the night, that of January 13. Even though the date has been postponed by a few weeks, the ritual of light that erases darkness remains at its core.

2. The Ancient Festival of Shab-e Yalda, Iran

In Iran there is a very ancient tradition that celebrated Mithra, the Zoroastrian deity of light, referred to as Shab-e Chelleh, the night of 40. The number represented the days of the beginning of winter and, on that night, there was a strong recommendation to never be alone.

At night it was recommended to stay awake, in groups of friends or family, precisely because in the darkness the forces of evil were more powerful than ever. And the only way to ward off and defeat the evil one was to stay with your eyes open, in a group of more people.

Now the rites have changed: you stay awake until late, in company, reciting poems and eating the last remaining fruits of the summer, along with other foods (nuts, soups, rice).

It is celebrated with long parties until late at night, eating fruits such as pomegranates and watermelons, along with rice dishes, reading and staying with the family for long reunions. It seems that the red color of the fruit symbolizes the red of the sky at dawn and the color of life, which is reborn.

3. The Magic of Christmas in Europe

The time of year preceding the Winter Solstice is called Advent , which means Waiting. What are we waiting for? The answer for many is: we wait for Christmas. We can say that this is certainly true, but for a long time the ancient peoples of Europe waited for something that was very important to them and to which we today give less value, the return of sunlight, or rather the lengthening of the hours of light during the day.

Incredible Christmas trees, that challenge the sky. Or, again, Santa Claus's house, in Lapland , that never ceases to tickle the imagination of children all over the world. However, Christmas traditions, even if they start from a common matrix, are not all the same.

In Norway, for example, a tradition inspired by the myth of Thor is still alive. According to legend, he traveled in a cart pulled by two goats. Today, the Julebukk – a man traditionally dressed in a goat mask and fur coat so as not to be recognized – wanders from house to house singing Christmas carols in exchange for sweets. While in neighboring Finland , the bearded Joulipukki himself – alias Santa Claus – kicks off the festivities by parading through the streets of Helsinki among the illuminated garlands.

The classic Northern European Christmas markets, for their part, never cease to fascinate international tourists. Although there is the tradition of Krampus . It is a demon in the form of a goat who punishes naughty children by giving them a wooden stick instead of the more traditional sweets. This nemesis of Santa Claus takes on different names depending on the countries in which the tradition is handed down. In fact, it is called Krampus in Austria and Germany, Houseker in Luxembourg, Parkelij in Croatia and Slovenia, Père Fouettard in France and Zwarte Piet in the Netherlands .

4. Hanukkah, the traditional December holiday of the Jewish people

Hanukkah – or Chanukkah – is one of the most important Jewish traditions that is celebrated during the winter solstice. Also known as “Jewish Christmas” , in reality this religious holiday is very far from the most widespread Christmas celebrations in Europe.

This December holiday, in fact, celebrates the ancient liberation of the Temple of Jerusalem from the Greek-Syrian occupation. And, more generally, the perseverance of the Jewish people in the persecutions suffered over the centuries.

Hanukkah celebrations last 8 days . They include ritual blessings by the Rabbi, family dinners with delicious sweets called “sufganiyah” and outdoor events with the rest of the community.

5. Dongzhi, the typical Eastern Christmas in China

Considered the Christmas of the East, Dongzhi is a very important tradition, which follows Taoist philosophy and the concepts of Yin and Yang. Also celebrated during the winter solstice, this December holiday in its own way exalts the victory of light over shadows. Of the Sun over darkness.

In ancient times, it was a celebration linked to the end of the harvest , when farmers, after months of hard work, collected the fruits that nature gave back and shared them with their families.

Like other celebrations, typical of the period, Dongzhi is spent with the family enjoying traditional dishes. The symbol of this holiday in China are rice balls called tangyuan. A real delicacy, enjoyed by adults and children alike.

6. Tōji Festival in Japan

The winter solstice, Tōji in Japanese, is celebrated as a moment of harmony and balance, in the succession of the seasons of nature and life.

Whether you are at the foot of a bamboo forest or in a modern megalopolis, traditional activities during this period include a relaxing bath in yuzu, which is said to have beneficial properties and fight illnesses, the preparation of tōji-gayu, a kind of rice porridge made with adzuki beans, and dishes made with the winter squash kabocha.

In Japan, however, during the winter solstice there are much more personal and intimate rituals. People who want to celebrate this event and this date take a relaxing bath in a tub filled with yozu fruit. According to local tradition, the citrus bath is supposed to have a warming effect that keeps away illnesses that arrive in the winter months.

A ritual that has lasted for hundreds of years and is passed down from generation to generation. Other traditions – always in Japan – linked to the winter solstice include eating winter squash, toji-gayu (rice porridge with Adzuki beans) and also foods whose name contains the sound “n”, which is thought to bring good luck. Among the most popular and trendy options are certainly ninjin (carrot), udon (noodles) and ginnan (ginkgo nuts).

7. Losar, the Tibetan New Year

In Tibet, however, one of the longest New Year’s Eves in the world takes place. The Losar celebrations – as this December celebration is called – begin, in fact, a good 15 days before New Year’s Day. During this period, you can attend local folk dances. And you can taste the traditional Tibetan beer, the famous “chhaang”.

8. Burning the Clocks in Brighton

In the United Kingdom, more precisely in Brighton, on December 21st there is an event called Burning the Clocks, a lantern parade organised by the Brighton arts charity, Same Sky. For about twenty years now, those who choose to participate and be present, build lanterns from paper and willow wood and walk through the streets of the city of Brighton and then conclude the celebration by throwing their creations into a bonfire on the local beach.

9. Saint Lucia's Day in Scandinavia: Young Women 'Defy the Darkness of Winter'

Saint Lucia ’s Day – which falls on December 13 – is a very popular holiday in all Scandinavian countries. Traditionally known as the festival of lights, on this day young women in white robes parade in procession through the streets.

Adorned with red sashes and garlands of candles on their heads, the girls light the way, “defying” the darkness of winter . This celebration is accompanied by traditional saffron buns and delicious butter biscuits.

10. Ursul, the Romanian Bear Dance

Ursul – the bear dance – is an old Romanian tradition that has survived the times. It is a somewhat peculiar celebration, during which women and men covered in bear skins dance in the streets. Accompanied by the melody of a flute.

Celebrated on the occasion of the winter solstice, this holiday was once used to keep evil spirits away. Today, however, it is an opportunity to bring local folklore to the stage and celebrate the eve of the new year .

11. Lwyd Mari, the Welsh tradition for a “sui generis” Christmas

Lwyd Mari is a Welsh tradition dating back to the 1920s. Still celebrated in some coastal villages, it is a truly “sui generis” celebration.

During the Christmas period, in fact, it is customary to carry through the streets the skeleton of a horse's head covered in a white robe . A puppet, obviously, which nevertheless evokes a rather macabre image. And very un-"Christmas-like".

However, in Welsh tradition, Lwyd Mari is a good omen. The common custom involves showing up at the home of friends or relatives with this very special heirloom. Then, a fish dinner and the most typical celebrations begin.

America's "Craziest" December Holidays

The American continent is a mix of different peoples, cultures and traditions. Of course, there are those who choose the more classic Christmas in New York. And those who, instead, perhaps prefer the Caribbean beaches decorated with tropical fir trees.

Some American traditions, however, escape mass tourism. We are talking about those holidays - some of which are very ancient - that survive in the collective memory. And they are preserved, passed down and celebrated by local populations. Let's discover together the "craziest" December holidays in America.

12. Discovering Soyal, the Native American Winter Solstice Celebration

Native Americans of the ancient Hopi and Zuni tribes celebrate the winter solstice every year with rituals and dances. This traditional December festival is called Soyal.

According to the most ancient rites, before starting the celebrations it is necessary to purify oneself through the Paphos . A prayer stick with which people, homes and even livestock are blessed.

In ancient times, the celebration of the winter solstice was very important for Native Americans. The Soyal, in fact, is a sacred ceremony designed to gain the benevolence of the Kachinas. The spirits of the mountains .

13. The Magical “Radish Night” in Oxaca, Mexico

The festival of the “Night of the Radishes” in Oxaca traditionally begins on December 23 and ends on the day of St. Stephen , December 26. During the event, local artisans carve vegetables – radishes in particular – to create representations of the Nativity or other traditional Mexican icons.

A bit like Italian nativity scenes, the vegetables represent characters and scenes from everyday and religious life. But, since they are fresh vegetables , these small masterpieces of Mexican craftsmanship tend to rot quickly. So, if you intend to admire them, you will have to hurry up and plan your trip, perhaps taking advantage of the offers and services to easily fly to every corner of the world.

14. Natal Luz, the Brazilian December celebration that lasts 25 days

Brazilian festivities are always deeply felt and participated in by the local population. Just think, for example, of the very famous Carnival of Rio de Janeiro .

During the Christmas period, however, the undisputed protagonist is Natal Luz. A Brazilian celebration, which originates in Gramado – in the Sierra Gaucha – where Christmas lasts a full 25 days.

From December 18th to January 11th, the city is lit up for the holidays. And many “Santa Clauses”, coming from all over the country, go around the streets to distribute gifts to all the children. Dancing and singing, as per Brazilian tradition.

15. The Celtic Yule Festival in Scandinavia

In Scandinavia, in addition to the traditional and heartfelt celebration of Saint Lucia, Yule is also celebrated, which derives from the Norwegian jól or Juul, and which can be associated with the Christmas holiday.

In Scandinavia, the winter solstice is celebrated days earlier, on December 13 (Saint Lucy's Day). Before Christianity, large bonfires were lit to defeat and cancel the darkness of that night. Today, however, the "Festival of Lights" is held. Thousands of candles are lit and, in the homes, the eldest daughter of the family, after wearing a white dress and a crown of candles, wakes up the family members and serves them coffee and baked sweets.

The liturgical memory of Saint Lucy falls on December 13. Before the introduction of the Gregorian calendar (1582), the feast fell close to the winter solstice (hence the saying “Saint Lucy is the shortest day there is”), but it no longer coincided with the adoption of the new calendar by a difference of 10 days.

The celebration of the festival on a day close to the winter solstice is probably also due to the desire to replace ancient popular festivals that celebrate light and are celebrated in the same period in the northern hemisphere.

Other religious traditions celebrate the light in periods close to the winter solstice, such as the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, which lasts eight days like the celebrations for the saint in Syracuse, or the holiday of Diwali celebrated in India.

The cult of Saint Lucy also presents several affinities with the cult of Artemis, the ancient Greek deity worshipped in Syracuse on the island of Ortigia.

Artemis is also seen as the goddess of light while holding two burning, flaming torches in her hands. As the year draws to a close, the nights grow longer and the hours of daylight become shorter, until the day of the Winter Solstice, December 21st.

Nature's breath is suspended, waiting for a transformation, and time itself seems to stop.

It is one of the transitional moments of the year, perhaps the most dramatic and paradoxical: darkness reigns supreme, but at the moment of its triumph it gives way to the light which slowly begins to prevail over the winter mists.

After the Solstice, the longest night of the year, the days gradually begin to lengthen again.

Like all moments of transition, Yule is a period full of symbolic and magical meanings, dominated by myths and symbols from a very distant past. Yule, or Farlas, is a celebration of death, transformation and rebirth.

The word Yule perhaps derives from the Old Norse Hjól (wheel), referring to the fact that, at the winter solstice, the “wheel of the year is at its lowest point and begins to move up”.

The term has also spread to Finnish languages to refer to Christmas (in Finnish Joulu), although these languages are not of Germanic origin. In the Nordic countries Yule was still a time of dancing, rest and celebration. In Iceland Yule was celebrated according to the ancient tradition even in the Middle Ages.

Originally, it was an early Christian holiday, celebrating the Norse god Odin and the return of the sun with feasting and caroling. As per tradition, in fact, ceremonial fires are held by burning logs, houses are decorated with mistletoe and holly and toasts are made with cider and mulled wine.

Furthermore, in ancient times, according to Celtic tradition, Yule was celebrated, the pagan festival of light and rebirth. In neo-paganism and Wicca culture, Yule still exists and is one of the eight Sabbaths celebrated during the year (it is part of the minor Sabbaths).

Yuletide celebrations continue in the neo-paganism of Wicca with the commemoration of the death of the Holly King, symbolizing the old year and the declining sun, at the hands of his successor, the Oak King, symbolizing the new year and the sun beginning its ascent.

At the heart of the tradition, light was celebrated as a response to the darkness of that night: women waited in the darkness, with a lit candle given to them by men, which was then used to light the hearth.

In a ceremony, the family gathered around the fireplace and lit a log of oak or ash to forever drive away evil spirits, hidden in the darkness, from them and from the house. The log was lit with the embers of the previous year, preserved in the months to follow. It had to burn all night and be extinguished through a specific ritual.

It was buried in the ashes for the remaining 12 days of Yule. And it was preserved as done with the previous one, for the rite of the following year. At Stonehenge, Yule is still celebrated every year, by lighting bonfires and reciting propitiatory magic formulas.

Christmas is the Christian version of the rebirth of the sun, traditionally set on December 25 by Pope Julius I (337-352) for the dual purpose of celebrating Jesus Christ as the “Sun of Justice” and creating an alternative celebration to the more popular pagan holiday.

Since ancient times, from Siberia to the British Isles, passing through Central Europe and the Mediterranean, there was a flourishing of rites and cosmogonies celebrating the fatal marriage of the longest night with the shortest day.

Among the Celts there was a ritual in which women waited, immersed in darkness, for the arrival of the candle-light brought by the men with which the fire was lit, and then they all celebrated the light together around the fire.

All religious traditions, starting from the most ancient ones, celebrate the Light during the period of transition between darkness and its return, symbolized by the winter solstice.

It is essential at this point to understand how this solar rebirth represents "only" the symbol of a cosmic regeneration, in which the Sun and the Light are associated with the idea of the immortality of man, who operates his second spiritual birth, developing and overcoming his own subtle state, on the night of the winter solstice, when it is possible to access the deva-yana or "path of the gods" of the Hindu tradition.

The Winter Solstice corresponds, in a microcosmic sense, to the awareness of true spirituality, as it has come into the light.

During this process esoteric understanding can be visualized as a reflected illumination that illuminates the darkness of the cave: a beam of light that penetrates from an opening in the roof of the cave and generates that reflected illumination, also described in the myth of Plato's sacred cave and whose source is the "Intelligible Sun".

In the microcosmic order, as far as the individual subtle organism is concerned, this opening corresponds to the energy centre located at the top of the head: the crown chakra, the kether of the Sephiroth.

It represents the seventh level of the chakra system and corresponds to what in Christianity is referred to as the seventh heaven.

It is the state of awareness of absolute freedom, the seat of the Creator.

So, to conclude, the festival of the Sun, the festival of Light, of enlightenment and human immortality as the essence of Light, that little piece of Light that is in each of us.

Since the dawn of time we have celebrated this holiday as one of the most important because we continue to feel our connection with the Light, to which every Soul will inevitably return.

16. Winter Solstice in Newgrande, Ireland

Let's not forget, moreover, that many mysterious places in the world were built in alignment with the points where the sun rises or sets, such as Newgrange in Ireland. Newgrange is a prehistoric site with an internal chamber that seems to have been built around 3200 BC and that is fully illuminated during the sunrise of the winter solstice. To enter it, a lottery is held every year since it is a closed place and the space is limited.

Newgrange in Meath, Ireland, is a prehistoric site that attracts much attention during the winter months, a mysterious place that is estimated to have been built in 3200 BC. This circular structure was designed so that the longest passage and inner chamber are fully illuminated during sunrise on the winter solstice, leading archaeologists to believe that Newgrange served as a religious or ceremonial center.

Today, you can experience the winter solstice sunrise at Newgrange the same way as the Neolithic people of the area. Due to its limited structural capacity, a lottery is required to enter between December 18 and 23—60 people are selected (and invited to bring a guest), with 10 winners allowed to enter at a time each morning to witness the solar phenomenon. If you’re keen to experience a winter solstice with a prehistoric twist, enter the lottery via the Brú na Nóinne Visitor Centre.

Another mysterious place with its 5000 years of history is Stonehenge in England , the famous stone temple, where people gather at dawn and dusk to watch the sun filter through the stones arranged in a circle and in perfect harmony with the movements of the sun.

Other very famous places, built following the movements of the sun and the changing seasons scattered around the world are: Machu Picchu in Peru , Chichen Itza in Mexico, The Great Sphinx and the Pyramid of Chephren in Egypt.

The prehistoric ritual was a vigil celebrated from dusk till dawn on the longest night of the year. It was again celebrated during the summer solstice on the longest day of the year. In pagan myths, the festival symbolized the new year as the sun begins its ascent. Other traditions celebrate the birth of the sun god.

Ancient ceremonies of fertility and sun worship were common in many cultures. Sumerians, Mesopotamians, Babylonians, and all others connected the sun with rebirth and renewal.

People continued worship throughout history, with beliefs that have arisen around this worship. The worship of the sun originated the henotheism and monotheism. Dazhbog represented the fire of the sky and got associated with the Sun. Svarog forged the Sun and had given it to his son Dazhbog to take it across the sky. It is probable that Svarog got worshiped as a supreme god in times long before.

A first variant included Swarg, Varun, and Surya. Later, they got replaced. Sol Invictus got celebrated in allusion to the rebirth of the sun. The feast of Brumalia was a feast dedicated to the Sun, held at the winter solstice.

Also in the past, the ancient Romans celebrated, in those hours, the rebirth of the Child Sun, with the festivity of "Sol Invictus", called in Latin "Dies Natalis Solis Invicti" (the Day of Birth of the Invincible Sun). Also in this case, as in all the rites mentioned, it is always the sun (or the light) at the center of thought.

Happy Feast of Lights to everyone.