Yes­ter­day, Decem­ber 21st, saw the Win­ter Sol­stice in the North­ern Hemi­sphere —  the day with the short­est peri­od of day­light and longest night of the year, when the Sun is at its low­est dai­ly max­i­mum ele­va­tion in the sky.

Since pre­his­to­ry, the win­ter sol­stice has been a sig­nif­i­cant time of year in many cul­tures, and has been marked by fes­ti­vals and rit­u­als. It marked the sym­bol­ic death and rebirth of the Sun; the grad­ual wan­ing of day­light hours is reversed and begins to grow again. Some ancient mon­u­ments such as New­grange and Stone­henge are aligned with the sun­rise or sun­set on the win­ter solstice.

Today on Vir­tu­al Com­mu­ni­ty Radio, we present a pro­gramme of Celtic and Celtic-influ­enced music, includ­ing tracks of a sea­son­al nature. Enjoy!

In addi­tion, there’s anoth­er chance to catch our sea­son­al edi­tion of “Where Have You Been?”, our orig­i­nal series cov­er­ing places to vis­it and things to do around the Sec­ond Life Grid. This time we vis­it the “Let It Snow!” region cre­at­ed by Mil­lie Sharple. More details can be found here. Tune in at noon or 4pm Pacific/SLT, 8pm or mid­night in the UK.

“Stand­ing Stones” by CZMJ is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0