The Winter Sleep Moon went dark yesterday. Today begins the Midwinter Moon. This lunation always feels like the shortest of the year, even though the nights are long. There is so much packed into this time of year, that a month can slip through your fingers before you even get a good grasp of the time.
Tomorrow is the Winter Solstice (10:03am), the shortest day of the year. It is also St Thomas’ Day. However, most of the traditions for that holiday happen on the eve, today. This is an everning for old people to go ambulatory begging. Called Mumpin’ or Gooding, old women go door-to-door asking for holiday provisions. It is considered extremely bad luck to be miserly when they come calling.
This is also the longest night — by a couple seconds — so if you have traditions that celebrate the sun’s rise after the longest night, then tonight is the night to keep vigil. In the northern hemisphere, tomorrow’s sunrise will be the “birth of the sun”, the beginning of the sun’s trip north and the beginning of a new solar year. (Down south, this is the beginning of the slowing, the inward turn heading toward harvest and winter.)
For my part of the world, winter is half over. Both moon and sun are waxing for the next couple weeks. Seems like this is a good time to begin new things, or at least time to look toward the season of growth. Time to peruse the seed catalogs that are spilling out of the mailbox. Plan a new garden. Think about growing at least one thing you’ve never tried before. Also a good time to pick up those hobbies that have been set aside. Or start something you’ve always wanted to try. This is the time to make time.
We had a brief thaw yesterday. It rained all day and hit a record 50°F. The snow all melted. So it was squishy enough to plant the shipment of bulbs that arrived around Thanksgiving this year, which I did, since I was off work for my version of the Midwinter holidays. I’ve no idea why anyone would think that shipping plants to Vermont in late November is a good idea, but this isn’t the first time it has happened. I had them on the unheated back porch wrapped in burlap, but they still didn’t look happy. But they’ve got a few months to recover, so we’ll see what spring brings. The good thing is that they will undoubtedly be unmolested at least until the next thaw.
This morning, they are already sealed in frozen earth once again. A bit before sunset last night, the wind died and then shifted from south to west. Then the temperature started dropping. By the time I was planting the last bulb, the rain was already slushy snow. It was 28°F when I took a bag of trash out to the garage bins late in the evening, and the mercury continued to drop down into the teens.
I am baking biscochitos today. Seemed a good way to keep the house warm. I am cutting them into stars and suns and moons and dusting them all with sugar infused with anise and vanilla bean. Because that’s festive! Also warming. They are great with warm drinks like cider and hot chocolate. I suspect they will all be eaten before sunrise tomorrow.
At which time I will be saluting the sun (wherever it is above all this cloud-cover) and then nestling down for a quiet solstice. I am sure there will be napping.
Here is my favorite song for sunrise following the longest night. And if you have any old women knocking on your door tonight, be sure to fill their baskets with delicious holiday fare.
©Elizabeth Anker 2025
By My Solitary Hearth 