Winter solstice (tooji)

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For Summer Solstice, see below.
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Winter solstice (tooji, Japan)

***** Location: Japan, worldwide
***** Season: Mid-Winter
***** Category: Season

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Explanation

Winter solstice, tooji 冬至

ichiyoo raifuku 一陽来復（いちようらいふく）"sun comes back"
The 21st of December.

sakutan tooji 朔旦冬至 (さくたんとうじ )
"morning of the first and solstice"
when the solstice falls on November 1 of the lunar calendar. Once in 19 years, this is an auspicious day and has been celebrated at court.


On this special day, we eat pumpkin soup and take a bath with yuzu fruit (see below). This a Japanese custom to keep your good health in the winter season.
This day is also called "The sun is coming back" (ichiyoo raifuku　一陽来復）. Yin and Yang are changing. Bad things are coming to an end and new, better ones are to be expected.

Etsuko Yanagibori


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ichiyoo raifuku 一陽来福
a pun with "luck coming back"

This is also the name of restaurants and noodle soup.
. . . CLICK here for Photos !

. . . CLICK here for Photos
of "sun coming back" !

At the temple Hojo-ji (hoojooji 放生寺) in Tokyo, there is a large stone memorial with these words in the compounds.


A ricewine from Niigata with this name
. . . CLICK here for Photos !

At the shrine Ana Hachimangu in Tokyo people come at the day of the winter solstice to buy this amulet. It is good for business and to make money, when they put it into the auspicious driection of the new year (ehoo　恵方).　They also hang it outside on the last day of the year and for the Setsubun rituals in February. The letters of the amulet have to face the auspicious direction.
Just as shadow receedes to new light, bad fortune will not receede and good luck is bound to come.

穴八幡宮

. Amulets and Talismans from Japan .　


. Auspicious direction of this year (ehoo　恵方) .

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by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892)
The sun goddess Amaterasu emerges from her cave.

. Amaterasu Oomikami (Omikami) 天照大神 .
The Sun Deity of Japan

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Some Astronomical Facts
As the Earth travels around the Sun in its orbit, the north-south position of the Sun changes over the course of the year due to the changing orientation of the Earth's tilted rotation axes with respect to the Sun. A QuickTime movie illustrates the tilt of the Earth's equatorial plane relative to the Sun which is responsible for the seasons. The dates of maximum tilt of the Earth's equator correspond to the summer solstice and winter solstice, and the dates of zero tilt to the vernal equinox and autumnal equinox.

In the northern hemisphere, the Winter solstice is day of the year (near December 22) when the Sun is farthest south. However, in the southern hemisphere, winter and summer solstices are exchanged so that the winter solstice is the day on which the Sun is farthest north. The winter solstice marks the first day of the season of winter. The declination of the Sun on the (northern) winter solstice is known as the tropic of capricorn (-23° 27').

The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year, respectively, in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise and sunset on this day is a minimum for the year. Of course, daylight saving time means that the first Sunday in April has 23 hours and the last Sunday in October has 25 hours, but these human meddlings with the calendar and do not correspond to the actual number of daylight hours. In Chicago, there are 9:20 hours of daylight on the winter solstice of December 22, 1999.
http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/astronomy/WinterSolstice.html




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quote
Virtually all cultures have their own way of acknowledging this moment. The Welsh word for solstice translates as “the point of roughness,” while the Talmud calls it “Tekufat Tevet,” first day of “the stripping time.” For the Chinese, winter’s beginning is “dongzhi,” when one tradition is making balls of glutinous rice, which symbolize family gathering. In Korea, these balls are mingled with a sweet red bean called pat jook. According to local lore, each winter solstice a ghost comes to haunt villagers. The red bean in the rice balls repels him.

In parts of Scandinavia, the locals smear their front doors with butter so that Beiwe, sun goddess of fertility, can lap it up before she continues on her journey. (One wonders who does all the mopping up afterward.) Later, young women don candle-embedded helmets, while families go to bed having placed their shoes all in a row, to ensure peace over the coming year.

Street processions are another common feature. In Japan, young men known as “sun devils,” their faces daubed to represent their imagined solar ancestry, still go among the farms to ensure the earth’s fertility (and their own stocking-up with alcohol). In Ireland, people called wren-boys take to the roads, wearing masks or straw suits. The practice used to involve the killing of a wren, and singing songs while carrying the corpse from house to house.

Sacrifice is a common thread. In areas of northern Pakistan, men have cold water poured over their heads in purification, and are forbidden to sit on any chair till the evening, when their heads will be sprinkled with goats’ blood. (Unhappy goats.) Purification is also the main object for the Zuni and Hopi tribes of North America, their attempt to recall the sun from its long winter slumber. It also marks the beginning of another turning of their “wheel of the year,” and kivas (sacred underground ritual chambers) are opened to mark the season.
source : www.nytimes.com/2010
Richard Cohen, author of
“Chasing the Sun:
The Epic Story of the Star That Gives Us Life.”


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Worldwide use

Ireland

The Winter Solstice, or Yule,
is the shortest day and the longest night of the year. It is associated with the birth of the Sun King. It falls on the first day of winter, which is either 21 or 22 December, and is celebrated as the day that the Sun is reborn (later adapted by Christianity as the "son" is born) to warm the Earth again. Yule comes from the word Jule, which in Old Norse means, "wheel."

Celtic people celebrate Yule as the battle between the aging Holly King, who represents the darkness of the old year, and the young Oak King, who symbolizes the light of the new year. Sometimes the battle is re-enacted during the burning of the Yule log — which is done to encourage the Sun's easy birth, welcome it back to Earth.

This was a time of joy and hope — a holiday meant to uplift spirits weary from winter and a time to appreciate the wonders that will come with the spring.

Along with the evergreen, the holly and the ivy and the mistletoe were important plants of the season, all symbolizing fertility and everlasting life. According to the Bardic Tradition, the Winter Solstice was called 'Alban Arthan' by the Druids. It was then that the Chief Druid cut the sacred mistletoe from the Oak. The Celtic Druids would cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle on the sixth night of the moon. Later Christian churches would ban mistletoe from Christmas celebrations because of its fertility rite connotations.

In addition to fertility rituals, divinations were cast for the coming Spring both through ritual means and through good-natured taunting and wagering.
©　www.irelandsown.net

.....

Silver-white frostwork
sleeping in winter-clad towns:
Yule hibernation

Nuala Ní Chonchúir
(from ¡Divas! New Irish Women's Writing publ. by Arlen House)



WKD : Winter Solstice in Ireland


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"Eucalyptus Yule"
Winter solstice June 2010 in Australia


Winter Solstice Celebrations around the World
www.religioustolerance.org/winter_solstice.htm


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. Sanziana, Yellow Bedstraw (Galium verum) .
Midsummer Rituals in Romania


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Things found on the way


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HAIKU

さぼてんを上座に直ス冬至哉
saboten o kamiza ni naosu tooji kana

I move my cactus
to the upper shelf –
it’s Winter Solstice.

Kobayashi Issa 一茶　文化二
(Tr. Robin Gill)


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風雲の少しく遊ぶ冬至かな
fuu-un no sukoshiku asobu tooji kana

wind and clouds
playing just a little -
winter soltice
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

Ishida Hakyo (1913-1969)　石田波郷　
http://jindaiji.co.jp/sobazen/199712.html
http://www.lib.ehime-u.ac.jp/KUHI/ENG/hakyoeng.html

Fuu-un can also mean: winds and clouds/elements/situation/state of affairs

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winter solstice
headlights
in both directions

willard

From the Shiki Archives. The Photo above is also from this link.
Read more haiku on this topic here:
http://shiki1.cc.ehime-u.ac.jp/~shiki/kukai/kukai51-1.html

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winter solstice
a titmouse moves deeper
into the bush

B. Ross


winter solstice-
where are my
sheepskin slippers?

Kate Steere
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cherrypoetryclub/message/21086

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Beethoven
and some incense smoke -
the longest night

Beethoven
und Incenserauch -
die laengste Nacht

Gabi Greve
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/happyhaiku/message/977

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winter solstice
a rainbow
around the moon

susan delphine delaney

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winter solstice -
a dark shadow grows
darker

gabi greve, Dezember 2008

I Ching 24. Fu - Return (The Turning Point)
and some musings about American Haiku


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Related words

***** Plum blossoms of the Winter Solstice
(tooji bai　冬至梅）
The Japanese UME is in fact an apricot, but usually translated as plum blossoms.


Fritz Capelari (1884-1950)

apricot blossoms
start to bloom
the winter solstice

etsuko yanagibori

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堀端の風の甘さや冬至梅
horibata no kaze no amasa ya tooji bai

the wind from the riverbank
smells so sweet -
plums at winter solstice
(Tr. Gabi Greve)

source : www.hpmix.com/home/tetsuan/


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The Winter Solstice day and the time around it is a time to care for your health, with food like this and with a hot bath.


***** Pumpkin Soup at the Winter Solstice
(tooji kabocha 冬至南瓜）
tooji konnyaku 冬至蒟蒻（とうじこんにゃく）konyak for winter solstice
tooji mochi 冬至餅（とうじもち） ricecakes for winter solstice


***** Rice Gruel at the Winter Solstice
(tooji-gayu　冬至粥)
akaragashiwa 赤柏（あからがしわ）"red oak"
azuki no kayu 赤豆の粥（あずきのかゆ）gruel with red adzuki beans


***** Yuzu Bath on the Winter Solstice Day
yuzu yu 柚子湯 (ゆずゆ) / yuzuburo 柚子風呂（ゆずぶろ
(tooji yu 冬至湯, tooji-buro冬至風呂)

... ... see Yuzu (citron family)

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. kiku no toojime 菊の冬至芽（きくのとうじめ）
chrysanthemum budding at the winter solstice


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***** Long Night (yonaga, nagaki yo 夜長、長き夜）　
kigo for atumn
(The above link also includes explanations for : short night, long day, short day.)

Properly speaking, the longest night is that of the winter solstice (around 21 December by the Gregorian calendar), but "long night(s)" as an autumn topic is based less on the calendar than on poetic sensibility: the contrast with summer's brief nights. At night-work or reading a book in the pleasant climate of autumn, one keenly feels the lengthening nights.


山鳥の枝ふみかゆる夜長かな
yamadori no eda fumikayuru yonaga kana

a copper pheasant's
feet fidget on the branch--
this long night

Buson ... 蕪村

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よそに鳴る夜長の時計数へけり
yoso ni naru yonaga no tokei kazoekeri

distant striking
of a clock in the long night--
I counted each

Sugita Hisajo .... 杉田久女


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long night
moon playing hide and seek
with the sun

Ella Wagenmakers


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***** Summer Solstice, geshi　夏至
kigo for mid-summer

geshi no hi 夏至の日（げしのひ）day of the summer solstice
geshi no ame 夏至の雨（げしのあめ）rain on the summer solstice
geshi no yoru 夏至の夜（げしのよる）night of the summer solstice
geshi yokaze 夏至夜風（げしよかぜ）windy night of the summer solstice

geshi byakuya 夏至白夜（げしびゃくや）
white night of the summer solstice

white night in the polar region (byakuya)




Chinese astronomers determining the summer solstice
The Mathematics of the Chinese Calendar


The Summer Solstice is the beginning of the Astronomical Summer, and is often considered the start of summer in the United States (even though Summer vacations started at the end of the school year--usually in May).
The traditional European Summer, as well as the definition of Summer used for Japanese haiku, has the Summer Solstice as the middle of the Summer season.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Season


Click HERE to see more photos, of Stonehenge and other places


first night of summer...
neither the mockingbird
nor I can sleep

© gK
tinywords.com/haiku.2002


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summer solstice --
an old pine anchors
the moon

Laryalee Frazer, 2005


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summer solstice--
we hang suspended
in the first light

John Daleiden, June 2006

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sweltering . . .
the summer solstice
a month away

Laura Becker Sherman
- WKD facebook 2012 -

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ENYOVDEN / Enyo’s Day (Midsummer Day)
June 24

Name day of everyone named Yanko, Yana, Yanka.

This ancient Bulgarian ritual is considered the turning point in the mythological calendar of the ancient people – a ritual connected to the summer Equinox, when the day is longest and the night is shortest. Enyovden / Enyo’s Day is a favorite summer holiday for young and old. It practically divides the year into two. It is believed that after that feast, winter sets on its long way to the people. The story of Enyo putting on his furcoat and going to search for snow reminds that it is time to think of the long cold months to come.
People get up early that day to see the sun “turning three times” - whoever manages to "bathe" in the dew will be safe from illnesses until Midsummer Day next year. Old people say the legend of Enyo - once upon a time, in a village, there used to live two young people, Enyo and Stana, who were very much in love. Every day they thought of each other,and the bread had no taste at all until they saw each another at least from afar. But the girl’s father had decided else and arranged an engagement for Stana in another village.
MORE
source : www.plovdivguide.com


standing tall
in front of the sun-
Enyovden

- Shared by Tzetzka Ilieva -
Haiku Culture Magazine, 2013


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Solstice December 2012 - Mayan Doomsday

A New Age interpretation of this transition was that the date marked the start of a period during which Earth and its inhabitants would undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation, and that 21 December 2012 would mark the beginning of a new era.
Others suggested that the date marked the end of the world or a similar catastrophe. Scenarios suggested for the end of the world included the arrival of the next solar maximum, an interaction between Earth and the black hole at the center of the galaxy,or Earth's collision with a planet called Nibiru.
©　More in the WIKIPEDIA !


snowy morning,
December 21...
reciting Basho

for Mayan Doomsday believers

Chen-ou Liu
Canada

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. jikan　時間 time in Edo - Edo no jikoku 江戸の時刻 .

. SAIJIKI
OBSERVANCES, FESTIVALS, RITUALS


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