I was driving my 12 year old to jazz band and the song “Heathens,” by 21 Pilots came on the radio. My son asks me, “Mom, what’s a heathen?” It’s a pretty cool song, (check it out here) and a little creepy, but I had a hard time answering the question. That got me to thinking about heathens, pagans, and of course, today’s winter solstice.
Today is the shortest day, and longest night, of the year. If you do a quick search on the internet about the winter solstice you will find all sorts of articles about people gathering at Stonehenge. Stonehenge is believed to have been constructed approximately 300 B.C. on England’s Salisbury Plain, and people travel from all over the world to see the giant stone pillars erected in a circle. It’s one of the places on my Bucket List too. I’m not sure when I’ll get to see it, but I plan on making the trip.
So what does the winter solstice have to do with Stonehenge? Stonehenge is directly aligned with the sunset on the winter solstice. This could mean that it was designed around the earth’s solstices and equinoxes – a sort of calendar or way to track the passage of time for the Druids.
When I started looking at the winter solstice, I found an amazing amount of information that link directly some things we do today and ancient practices. For example:
Everyone knows the earth is tilted and as it rotates around the sun (as we journey through our year), the amount of sun either increases or decreases due to that tilt and the earth’s location on its orbit – that’s why we have seasons. The earth has major latitude lines (the ones that run lateral, or sideways, around the earth), like the equator – it’s at 0° latitude. Here’s a quick picture for easy reference.
One of the major latitude lines is the Tropic of Capricorn. During the winter solstice the sun is directly over head of the Tropic of Capricorn. December 21 is also the day in the zodiac when the sun moves from the fiery sign of Scorpio into the earthly (stable) sign of Capricorn. The winter solstice is the longest night of the year. Some believed the veil between the worlds was at its thinnest during this long night, and if they spent the night in meditation and reflection they would gain insight into their future. I’m sure this is the time many of us reflect back on the past year and plan for the new one.
In ancient times, the winter solstice was the day of the last big feast before food got scarce. They would slaughter animals so they didn’t need to feed them through the winter, and the wine and mead they made previously was finally ready to drink. This is also the time of year when we gather with friends and family and have big feasts, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or just family dinners. It’s the time of year we gather our loved ones around us and serve filling and warming foods.
The winter solstice is significant, observed and practiced in almost every culture in the world. Remember December 21, 2012? The Mayan calendar ended on that date and many people believed that the world would also end. Obviously that didn’t happen!
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Back to Stonehenge and the Druids. Druids are pagans. Pagans don’t believe in the Christian God, but neither do heathens, so what’s the difference? I looked up the definition for both and here’s what I found:
“Pagans: a person holding religious beliefs other than those of the main world religion.”
“Heathens: a person who does not belong to a widely held religion (especially one who is not a Christian, Jew, or Muslim) as regarded by those who do.”
Not really different, and still didn’t answer my question. I did more poking around the internet and finally came up with: the main difference between pagans and heathens is that pagans seem to believe in more nature-based gods. Wiccans, a religious cult of modern witchcraft with beliefs rooted in nature, are considered pagans and not heathens.
People get all sorts of weirded out about that word, “pagan.” They envision cloaked figures standing around a bon fire, ritualisticly tossing in babies to appease the gods. Honestly, what first came to my mind were Wiccans and cloaks, but then I did a little research. The word “pagan” is derived from the Latin “paganus” meaning “villager, rustic”. In ancient times, as now, people in the more metro areas would have first access to all the newest and greatest tools, education, and religions. They would look down at the rural villagers who were poor, dirty and didn’t have the tools and knowledge they did. When a new religion would emerge, the metro people would have this great new set of beliefs, and the villagers (pagans) would have the old, different ones. That’s really not scary.
Aren’t we supposed to embrace everyone, even those who believe differently than we do? And if a pagan is a person who holds a religious belief other than those of the main world religion, what would happen if the main world religion became Wiccan? Would the Catholics, Muslims and other Abrahamic religions then be considered pagan?
Regardless of your religious beliefs, this is a great time of year to gather your family around you, eat wonderful foods, and reflect back: think about what happened last year, what worked, what didn’t, and what you want to do differently next year. This is it – the darkest, longest night of the year. So look on the bright side (literally): now we’re gaining sunlight every day!
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