At last!

[vilakins]

At last, the shortest day! It's all uphill from now on. We're going to go out this weekend and celebrate with a big slap-up winter meal. Happy solstice of whatever sort to you all!

We so need a winter festival, and I see that some people are promoting Matariki (Maori New Year). I hope it catches on. We have a sad lack of fun festivals here.

Prison Break starts on TV3 tonight. It looks interesting too. On my way to work this morning, I saw a helicopter towing a large black and white banner saying just 'Prison Break Tonight'. I bet it could be seen from Mt Eden prison where it might have raised some vain hopes.

Comments

[trixieleitz]

At last, the shortest day!

Haha, I just posted about the very same thing :)

One of my friends (she's Ngai Tahu) had a bonfire for Matariki. (Fun fact: the Japanese name for that constellation is Subaru.) Unfortunately, she lives in the middle of nowhere and I couldn't organise transport in time.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Auckland is doing a month-long Matariki festival (http://www.matarikifestival.org.nz/). I fancy the event at the Stardome Planetarium this Sunday and the Maori kite making. There's a dawn hangi at the Orakei marae tomorrow (just the next suburb) but sadly, working means I can't go.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I bet it could be seen from Mt Eden prison where it might have raised some vain hopes.

Ha!

Happy Solstice :0)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

And to you in midsummer!

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

Happy solstice to you! May the sun return to you in good order. :)

As for this hemisphere, I must say, it bemuses me a little to see today labelled "first day of summer" on all my calendars. I'm sorry, but when the temperature's getting up into the triple-digits, it's already summer. :)

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it will. It always has so far.

Yeah, that's weird. I consider each season starts almost a month before the solstice or equinox, so winter is basically June, July, August. It's been almost freezing this week which is very cold for Auckland.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it will. It always has so far.

Frankly, I'll be just as happy to give it back to you. :)

[reapermum.livejournal.com]

I don't know where I heard it, but it's one of those things I've been aware of for years. In the olden times the solstice and equinoxes marked the mid points of the seasons, that's why we get mid-summer (sorry, northern bias) this week.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

I can see why you wrote "Let There Be Light"....

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately all the Light festivals (Diwali, Hanukkah, Christmas) are in summer here.

[hafren.livejournal.com]

I've just realised that "it's all uphill from now on" means "things are getting better" in that post, whereas in English English parlance it would mean just the opposite - we'd say "it's all downhill now" and mean what you did!

Which made me think of the end of Rilke's Duino Elegies:

Und wir, die an steigendes Glück
denken, empfänden die Rührung,
die uns beinah bestürzt,
wenn ein Glückliches fällt.

So does that mean the German-speaking mindset automatically sees happiness as rising?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Aber sicher! High is good, and low is bad. I consider winter to be the depths of the year, so from now on we're climbing out of it.

I'd use "it's all downhill from here" for something that [no longer] requires effort, e.g. having done the hard bits on a project and just having the tidying up left. But in this situation, I feel I'm leaving a dark cold valley for the sunny hills. Eventually.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

And the reverse of the coin we have just started our longest day and it's all downhill from now on. One thing I am looking forward to is not being woken up at 4.30 am by the sunrise.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Better than getting up in the dark though. It's just not natural.

[linda-joyce.livejournal.com]

That I agree with. In my perfect world it would be late spring day lengths all the year round but still with the other chages our axial tilt gives to our imperfect world.