Seasonal Essay for December

For us, this is the month of our shortest day. Our tilted earth in its yearly passage around the sun is at the place where the North Pole is furthest from the sun and where we, looking up at that sun, see it at its southmost point. It therefore takes less time for those of us north of the equator on our rotating earth to pass by it. While we're having shorter days of winter, our neighbors south of the equator are having their long days of summer.

Day length has its effects on both plants and animals. Increasing day length brings about enlargement of the gonads in birds in preparation for the breeding season, and decreasing day length is a cue for migratory northern birds to head south. Some plants exhibit short day flowering while others are long day plants.

Dark days can have dark effects on our psyche and so it is the season of festivals, of ways to lighten the spirit. Peoples of antiquity in regions of Romania saw the bright side of the darkest day and called it, "the birthday of the invincible sun," the beginning of longer days.

No wonder ancient people worshipped the sun and struggled to plot its varying paths through the sky. It gives us warmth and that wonderful light that makes possible this chromatic world in which we live.