Celebration of light on darkest day.

Byline: MARK BAKER The Register-Guard

They chanted and sang.

They said goodbye to the dark and hello to the light.

Winter arrived Saturday, but winter solstice has come and gone - and with it, Dec. 21, the darkest day of the year.

"Winter solstice is a time we call in the light, and this year, it takes on a deeper meaning, where we call in the light of peace and compassion," Karin Sundberg of Dexter wrote in a reporter's notebook Saturday night at the Far Horizons Montessori school during a winter solstice celebration titled The Longest Night, Return of the Light.

Unable to speak louder than a faint whisper while various artists performed around burning candles, some in attendance passed the notebook from friend to friend.

Sundberg was one of about 60 people who gathered for the solstice celebration. And many there, including Lew Judd, who goes by Lew "Rising Sun" Sharanam, a Eugene man who coordinated the event to raise money for "peace activities," shared their concerns about America's imminent war against Iraq.

"This gathering is dedicated to the oneness of being and world peace," Sharanam said.

Eugene residents not only sang and chanted in Arabic and Sanskrit at the school on Hilyard Street on Saturday, some read poetry at Mount Pisgah during the morning, while others took a nature walk around Alton Baker Park. Some told stories and drank warm cider at the Museum of Natural History on Friday night, and others danced and watched the Solstice Goddess at the WOW Hall on Saturday night.

Wow, indeed.

Some say winter solstice is the world's oldest, and most universally celebrated holiday. It's a day celebrated by aborigines, academics, astroarchaelogists, atheists, Celts, Druids, historians, Native Americans, pagans, shamans and witches.

The Romans called it "Dies Natalis Invicti Solis" - the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun. In pagan Scandinavia, the winter festival was the "yule." Great yule logs were burned, and people drank mead, an alcoholic liquor made of fermented honey and water, around bonfires as they listened to minstrel-poets singing ancient legends.

In prehistoric times, it's believed that winter was very difficult for aboriginal people in the northern latitudes. They would become troubled as the sun sank lower in the sky each noon. They feared it would eventually disappear and leave them in permanent darkness. But after the winter solstice, they would celebrate as they saw the sun rising a little bit each day.

In ancient Greece, the winter solstice ritual was called "Lenaea - the Festival of the Wild Women," a day in which a man representing the harvest god Dionysos was torn to pieces and eaten by a gang of women.

Nothing like that was happening at the Far Horizons School on Saturday; quite the contrary. The Longest Night, Return of the Light celebration was "about honoring the change of the seasons and to bring awareness to the need to end the long night of war and human degradation that dates back many hundreds of years," wrote Sharanam.

Summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere usually occurs on June 21 and marks the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer. Winter solstice marks the beginning of winter when the sun is at its lowest elevation in the sky - as it moves south of the celestial equator - and, thus, is the day with the shortest period of sunlight.

The sun stops its southern descent at 23 1/2 degrees from the southern horizon and stands briefly before turning back toward the equator. Beginning today, the days gradually grow longer and the nights shorter for the next six months as Earth completes its yearly journey around the sun.

Winter solstice officially began at 5:14 p.m. Saturday and it's the day when the North Pole is tipped farthest away from the sun. The word solstice comes from two Latin words "sol," meaning sun, and "sistere," meaning standing still.

Of course, for people who live in the Southern Hemisphere, such as Argentina and Brazil, and Down Under in Australia and New Zealand, Saturday was summer solstice - the longest day of the year, as the South Pole was tilted closest to the sun.

But that's another story for another day - and time zone - so let's return to the top of the planet, and to the rhythmic chanting and the deep thoughts being recorded at the Far Horizons School.

"I'm here for the music," Tim Carraher of Monterey Park, Calif., wrote. "I love the change of seasons, the gray of winter and the change to spring."

Leigh Barrett, who is originally from South Africa, wrote that winter solstice is a fairly new experience, especially since Saturday was the first day of summer in South Africa. "I love the idea of celebrating the light, and realize how similar all religions are at this time of the year - Hanukkah, Christianity, pagan beliefs. All have the same basis - light and love. And PEACE!"

Larry Kaplowitz, a friend of Sundberg's from Dexter, wrote: "If we're going to regain balance as a culture, it seems essential that we recognize and attune ourselves with the natural rhythms of the earth. It feels good to get together and celebrate. And I love being in a room full of people singing together, affirming our connections."

With that, Kaplowitz handed the notebook to another friend from Dexter, William Latshaw, who wrote that "experiencing the darkness and sadness" of winter is necessary, "so that we can also experience the light and joy."

CAPTION(S):

WAYNE EASTBURN / The Register-Guard A musician who goes by the name of only Alfredo plays at Saturday night's winter solstice celebration that featured music and dancing.