Yesterday we had a beautiful winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night of the year. We also had a bonus as the sun was approaching its annual lowest point in the sky at noon: We had a waning crescent solstice moon that was barely visible in the glare of a bright day that was made brighter by a thin carpet of snow.
In fact, we originally couldn’t find that moon in the bright sky as it sailed over the Atlantic. But then, we heard “Pssst – look there!” A friendly spruce tree pointed it out for us, as you can see from the image above. Once we found it, we put a bigger lens to work:
In pre-Christian times, the winter solstice was celebrated religiously as Yule Time, when the energy of the moon god caused the rebirth of the sun. The word “solstice” is from the Latin for “stopped sun.” (Brooklin, Maine)