It has attempted to mount a winter solstice display at the capitol for the past two years.
About this time of year, the pre-Christian Vikings would be preparing for their annual winter solstice festival.
The Roman feast of Saturnalia was a weeklong winter solstice party that overturned social norms, including masters served slaves.
MSN: The crazy ways we mark winter solstice �� shortest day of year
At the end of the year the Winter Solstice is celebrated --many Macau Chinese consider this festival even more important than Chinese New Year.
The ancient people measured time in cycles called "baktuns" of 394 years each, and the winter solstice coming Friday marks the end of the 13th baktun.
In the lead up to the winter solstice, several sites throughout the former British colony are hosting events to celebrate the end (or the resetting) of the Maya calendar.
The Lodge at Chaa Creek has a Maya Winter Solstice Tour, and the week-long Belize Maya Heartland 2012 tour is offering an intense immersion in Maya culture.
Indeed, it seems very likely that the winter solstice was not dedicated to Sol by the Romans until after the bishop of Rome first celebrated Christmas on December 25th in 336 AD.
Now that the winter solstice is almost upon us, a big turning point each year in the dark North Atlantic, WEEKEND EDITION food essayist Bonny Wolf tries to understand the food's appeal.
Overnight camping at Caracol will be allowed for the first time, allowing winter solstice campers the chance to witness the sun rise on a new B'ak'tun (or cycle) from a very historical spot.
The pagan Slavic holiday of Korochun, celebrated on winter solstice, was more like Halloween: Evil spirits were at their most powerful on this night, until the new sun was resurrected and defeated them.
MSN: The crazy ways we mark winter solstice �� shortest day of year
The superstitious believed that hibernating animals would emerge from their long winter slumber to check on the weather on Candlemas, which is halfway between the winter solstice in December and the vernal equinox in March.
For their NPR visit, Kitka director Shira Cion and the group put together a winter solstice program, which included the haunting and droning "Byla Cesta, " a Moravian carol about a chance meeting on a path between St.
In a ceremony for the winter solstice at the mountaintop monastery of Rumtek itself, drums throb, horns and conches low mournfully, and monks led by a cleric in elaborate robes and a huge black hat consign an offering to the bonfire.
The tradition goes back to medieval times when there was a superstition that all hibernating animals emerged from their caves and dens to check the weather on Candlemas, which is halfway between the winter solstice in December and the vernal equinox in March.
The picture below is a snapshot of the sun caught during the winter (or, depending where you are, summer) solstice.
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