We are coming up for the winter solstice, the time of year when the nights are at their longest and darkest: we have the shortest day.  The word "solstice" comes from the Latin meaning "sun stands still."

I can't think of this time of year without being reminded of one of my favourite poems, John Donne's "A Nocturnal upon St Lucy's Day, being the Shortest Day."  This poem was written to mark St Lucy's Day (the 13th of December) which was in Donne's time the shortest day.  St Lucy's Day was a festival of light, celebrated with candles perhaps to cheer people up in the dark winter days.  The poem has a brilliant opening which captures the mood of these short winter days:

 

" Tis the year's midnight, and it is the day's,

Lucy's, who scarce seven hours herself unmasks,

The sun is spent, and now his flasks

Send forth light squibs, no constant rays;

The whole world's sap is sunk..."

 

Given the events of last Friday in Newton, Connecticut, the death of so many young people and the adults who cared for them (the slaughter of the innocents), it is hard not to think that these are dark days indeed. 

Traditionally, the end of a year is the time for reflection, a time to think through the events of the year, weigh their value before moving on to the new year.  Later in his poem, John Donne observes that:

 

"I am every dead thing

In whom love wrought new alchemy."

 

Here he acknowledges that there is always the possibility of change, that even in dark, dark times love is there, a force that can bring change.  The solstice marks the longest night, but it is the last of them: short nights are coming.  The great stones of Stonehenge are lined up with the sunlight on the winter solstice.  The ancient farmers celebrated at this time of year.  The shortest day had passed.

 

Remember St Lucy.  It is a time, sure enough, seriously to ponder the darkness, but don't linger.  The long nights are going, Lucy brings light:

 

"Let me prepare towards her, and let me call

This hour her vigil, and her eve, since this

Both the year's, and the day's deep midnight is."