Winter Solstice 2009

by Sally Pinchock

There are 4 times a year that the heavens have a particular alignment; Vernal Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox, and Winter Solstice. The word equinox comes from the Latin, aequus meaning equal and nox meaning night, so the equinox times are days of equal amounts of daylight and darkness.

The tradition date of the Vernal Equinox is March 20th and the Autumn Equinox is September 22nd or 23rd. Solstice comes from the Latin sol meaning sun and sistere meaning standing still. The Summer Solstice is June 21 which is the day of longest sunlight and the Winter Solstice is December 21, the day of shortest sunlight. All cultures use these celestial events for celebration and for determining other important events. For example, in the Roman calendar, Easter is always the first Sunday after the first full moon after the Vernal Equinox and this is why the date varies.

Over the years, I have been to ceremonies for these different events and all of them have been learning experiences for me. The most recent time I attended one was this December 21, 2009, the Winter Solstice. While often associated with pagan practices of recognizing the passing of darkness to days of more light, it has been adapted to also recognizing the upcoming Christmas bringing the light of Christ.

I was invited to attend this Winter Solstice ceremony by Sr. Arlene Kosmatka, an Adrian Dominican nun, who leads a Spirituality group at my parish, St. Kenneth’s in Plymouth MI. For her, this day also has particular significance because it is her birthday and this year she achieved 75 years.

I was told that the ceremony would take place at a Buddhist temple in Southfield at 6 pm and other Dominican nuns and lay associates were going to be there. She had gone in 2008 and said that it was an inter-faith ceremony. As many of you know, I am phobic when it comes to driving east of I-275 and I was asked to drive so I started out with reservations about the traffic, but looking forward to the ceremony. As I have been moving along on my spiritual journey, I am realizing that it is only through acknowledging that the entire universe is created by God and my respecting and co-existing with that understanding of unity that true, universal peace in this world can take place. So I was looking forward to this inter-faith ceremony.

First of all, my driving phobia was lessened when I found out that I was getting on I-96 from Schoolcraft/Newburg and I was getting off at Beech-Daly. That short distance at 5:30 pm traffic rush hour I could handle. Then we went north on Beech-Daly until we were actually going to a rather rural area. As we approached a ranch style house with a high privacy fence in front of it, Arlene said that was the temple. I was confused. Weren’t temples supposed to be large, brick buildings with spires? Especially Buddhist temples. What would have been a front yard had been black-topped for a parking area and we parked near the exit gate. Near the house in the parking lot was a burning pit ready for starting. All of the other ceremonies that I had attended had burning pits. The smoke from the fire lifts the intentions of the group to the heavens and carries off anything that people want to release to be transmuted by the universe.

As we gathered inside we were greeted by a monk named Mytri in a golden colored robe with a matching sweatshirt underneath and a tight winter cap on his head. You could feel the warmth and friendship coming from him. I learned that in this house there were 4 Sri Lanka Buddhist monks and Mytri was the resident monk with the other 3 studying under him.(Sri Lanka is the island that I knew as Ceylon off the southeastern coast of India.) Since Sri Lanka has a much warmer climate, their attire has to adapt to the Michigan weather without varying from the traditional code. What would be the living room was void of furniture except some random chairs along the wall and obviously the furnishings were hand-me-downs of some sort. This “temple” serves about 40 Sri Lanka Buddhists families in the Detroit area and the monks travel from here to serve other places in Michigan like Lansing.

As I met the motley group of people, I learned that Arlene’s friend Patty actually lived next door by sheer chance and Patty is an Adrian Dominican Associate which means that she embraces the following of the nuns without taking the vows of chastity. Patty teaches at Macomb and Schoolcraft Community Colleges and has also founded an organization for global peace. Many of the people gathered here were on the board of this peace group and included Mytri, Jews, Muslims, and other groups.

When most of the people were there we all picked up a candle and went outside where the fire was lit and the ceremony started. There were 3 speakers who led the ceremony and talked about on this night we will move from darkness to light and it is a reminder for us to look at our souls, our spirit and move from our own darkness to light. And as we find our light, it is this light that will shine out on others and as we all become en-LIGHT-ened we will advance unity and peace in the world. A light snow started to fall adding to the solemn atmosphere.

Then a woman holding a large lantern and her son spoke about Christ, Christmas, and Christ as the Light of the World and her lantern was lit. Next was a Jewish couple with a Menorah and as they lit each candle they sang the Jewish words of prayer and then interpreted them for us. 3 African-American women had a Kwanza candleholder and as they lit each candle, they read the corresponding prayers. And finally Mytri sang a Buddhist prayer which he explained was about peace and unity and his candle was lit and then a lighted candle was passed around until all of our candles were lit. It was moving to see how bright the circle got pushing away the darkness and the fire pit grew brighter. Some concluding prayers were said and then we all blew out our candles and proceeded back inside the house.

We were ushered downstairs where there was a finished basement with about 40 chairs set up and there were 2 tables with food. In the far corner was a pianist playing Christmas songs on the keyboard. At the far end of the room was a large American flag flanked on each end by Sri Lanka flags. As we got our food and sat, people started to converse and share how they were associated with the group. These people came from lots of different backgrounds and there was no particular outreach to invite them. You truly got the sense that they were led there by the Holy Spirit.

The ladies leading the Kwanza prayer had also brought hand drums and at the end a drumming session took place and she interpreted some of the drumming patterns that were carried over from Africa.

The group was very diverse with many cultures being represented, but perhaps the one person that impressed me the most was a midget (if that is the politically correct term). From what would be her hips to the top of her head she was completely normal and she was beautiful, radiant, articulate and confident. But at what would be the bottom of her hips were her feet, no legs. She walked around and talked and knew several in the group. She managed stairs well and when we were meeting downstairs, she was able to pull herself up into her chair. I tried not to stare, but I also was just so amazed by her. I didn’t get a chance to talk with her, but I realized how much I take for granted. In our universality of all belonging to the One God, we are different and some of us seem to have more blessings than others. Or do we?

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