A Winter Solstice Celebration

Paul Winter has celebrated the winter solstice for twenty years, accompanied each year by an array of great musicians; by thousands of visitors; and in the last ten years, by thousands more listeners to the show on National Public Radio. The 21st Annual Winter Solstice Celebration will take place December 14, 15, and 16, 2003, in New York City's Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Paul Winter's winter solstice concerts are a modern celebration of an ancient tradition. The winter solstice marks the beginning of the winter season. After the longest night, the days begin to lengthen. For many cultures, the long hours of darkness at winter solstice marked a time of mingled foreboding and expectancy. Special rituals were created to ensure that the sun's light would return after the long winter. Many of these traditions survive in our modern seasonal customs, such as the lighting of trees and decorative candles. Paul Winter incorporates some of these symbols into his contemporary celebrations, and he adds new ones. These include a giant earth ball which ascends spinning into the vaulted ceiling of the cathedral, and an enormous gong, which rises like the sun to the top of the cathedral, played by a musician in a bosun's chair.

About Paul Winter

A Winter Solstice Celebration

Script by Marilyn Copeland Davidson, Share the Music Coordinating Author

Based on the recording Solstice Live! A Celebration of the Winter Solstice, by the Paul Winter Consort, Earth Music Productions, Box 68, Litchfield, CT, 06759. All Rights Reserved. Distributed by Living Music Records, Inc. under license from Earth Music Productions.

(Suggested Scenery/Props are found at the end of the script.)

(Night sky. The sun is out of sight behind the trees.)

Listening: "Processional"/"Fanfare"—Paul Winter/Gordon Gottlieb
Solstice Live! Track 1, 0:58

Listening: "Tomorrow Is My Dancing Day"—Traditional English; Arr. by Paul Halley
Solstice Live! Track 2, 3:07

(Students enter during the second selection. Each carries an evergreen sprig, which they place in assigned places in the auditorium--some in containers on the stage, some in containers around the room. After placing their sprigs, the students take their own places on choral risers.)

Speech 1:

Welcome to our winter solstice concert! We are glad that you are here to share in our celebration of traditions old and new--all centered about the time of the winter solstice. Many of our own holiday customs of the season actually had their beginnings far, far back in time. Join us in a journey that includes both these ancient traditions and our own modern celebrations.

Speech 2:

Through the ages, people have especially valued light at this darkest time of the year. Many of today's winter holiday traditions began as ways that ancient people celebrated light. Our first song is a modern interpretation of the ancient concept that everything in the world was made up of four elements. The elements were earth, water, air, and the element representing light--fire.

Speech 3:

In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice is about December 21. On that date the sun seems to stand still at its southernmost point. The word solstice comes from two words in the ancient Latin language. The first word is sol, which means "the sun," and the second is stitium (stee-tsee-oom), which means "to stand still." The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year.

Speech 4:

In ancient times, people did not know what caused the days to get shorter. They became terribly afraid each autumn when they saw the sun sinking lower and lower in the south because they thought that the sun might disappear and its warmth and light would never return. Some believed that trolls and evil spirits walked the earth at this time of the year. For thousands of years, people all over the world developed customs that they believed would protect them from evil spirits and bring the sun back.

(Show transparency of Stonehenge.)

Speech 5:

In what is now Great Britain, people began to realize that the sun would regain its strength, but they wanted to know the exact time that this would happen. So, they placed huge stones to make a frame around the rising and setting sun on the winter solstice at Stonehenge. They also marked the summer solstice. Another favorite winter custom in ancient times was to decorate homes with sprigs of holly and mistletoe.

Speech 6:

In the far northern countries of Europe, the sun completely disappeared for many days. Each winter, the people sent scouts to the south to watch for the sun's return. Traditions began in Europe of feasting on a boar's head, of a blazing Yule log, and of hanging apples to branches of trees. Sometimes the people placed lighted candles in the tree branches. It was a time of friendship and of people coming together. Traces of these old customs remain in songs we still sing, like "Deck the Hall."

Speech 7:

At this time of year in ancient Rome, there was a custom of exchanging candles and presents. Coins and small surprises were hidden in pudding, and evergreens were brought indoors for decoration. Hundreds of years later in medieval France, gifts were on the minds of the carolers as they sang and played their instruments in celebration of Christmas. Today, we still look forward to giving and receiving gifts at this time of year.

(Students sit.)
(Remove transparency of Roman gift giving.)
(Show transparency of Peruvian Incas.)

Speech 8:

(Heard over "Buena Nueva") Celebrations of fire and light have always been important to people in many cultures all over the world. In South America, the ancient Incas of Peru had a winter solstice ceremony in which they gathered before dawn to await the coming of the sun. When the sun appeared, great shouts of joy rang out. The rays of the sun were then focused with a mirror to create fire. This fire was carried to all the temples, where it burned throughout the year.

Speech 9:

Many North American Native Americans also have special sun festivals. Among the Zunis of Arizona, in underground rooms, called kivas, slots let in the rays of the rising and setting sun throughout the year. The feathers in some Zuni headdresses look like the sun's rays. The Zunis salute the sun in the morning with a song--and a promise to make the day a useful and productive one. Listen to "Zuni Sunrise Song" from the Zunis of Arizona.

Listening: "Zuni Sunrise Song"—Zuni Song, as sung by Julius Chavez
Share the Music 2003, Grade 5, page 63, CD 1:14

Speech 10:

It may surprise some of you to know that some of the customs so familiar to us began even before Christmas was established as a holiday. Because the customs were so popular, they remained and became Christmas traditions. Santa's reindeer probably came from the northern European countries, since so many reindeer are found in this part of the world--and what would Christmas be without the reindeer on the rooftop waiting while Santa does his work on Christmas Eve? Why, here the reindeer come now--but they're not just quietly waiting for Santa Claus. They're dancing on the rooftop!

Speech 11:

In many sections of the continent of Africa, fire is valued for its light and its usefulness. Listen to this song that says "We are the burning fire; we burn, we burn."

Speech 12:

Many countries in Asia also have celebrations involving light. In India, in the late fall, a special group of Hindu holidays, called Diwali, occur. During this time, glowing oil lamps are placed everywhere--in windows and along roads and streams--creating a truly beautiful sight in the towns and villages. Here is a song of Diwali.

Speech 13:

The Jewish celebration of Hanukkah is also related to light. Long ago, the people of Jerusalem wanted to relight their holy lamp, but there was only enough oil for one day. Miraculously, the small amount of oil lasted for eight days. This miracle is celebrated in part by lighting the candles of the menorah each night and by singing Hanukkah songs.

Speech 14:

Listen to this Hanukkah song from Spain. It is called "Ocho Kandelikas," which means "Eight Candles." The language in which it is sung is called Ladino, a blend of ancient Hebrew, medieval Spanish, Arabic, Slavic, Greek, French, and Turkish.

Speech 15:

Of course, not all winter holiday traditions center on light. In Mexico and other Latin American countries, children look forward to breaking open a candy-filled piñata. They love to sing as one blindfolded person tries to break the piñata open with a stick. This song says that if they can't get it open, they will feel as foolish as "pure cucumber."

Speech 16:

Now, in modern times, with our knowledge of science, we know what causes the days to get shorter and longer. We know that the winter solstice and the seasons themselves are caused by the changing angle of the sun's rays and the tilt of the earth as the earth moves around the sun. We are no longer afraid. People simply turn on more lights as they busy themselves with holiday preparations. It's a time to remember that darkness will give way to light and that the world can become a better place in the year to come.

(Remove transparency illustrating the earth's movement around the sun.)

Speech 17:

So, join us now as we close our program with a winter solstice journey. It takes us from the darkness of the winter night as our ancestors may have experienced it--with only the sounds of shepherds' bells to give us hope and comfort--gradually giving way to other sounds and to the glorious return of the sun and its life-giving warmth.

SOME SUGGESTED TEACHING STRATEGIES FOR THIS PROJECT

• Guide students in learning about winter solstice. Encourage research in how our seasons change with the tilt of the earth as it moves around the sun.
• Discuss with students how they feel about this darkest time of the year. Compare it with the possible feelings of people in ancient times who did not understand the cause of the change in the length of day and night.
• Help students understand some possible reasons for celebrations involving fire and light around the time of the winter solstice.
• Have students listen to fanfares besides Paul Winter's "Fanfare," such as: "Fanfare" from Rocky, "Fanfare for the Common Man" (Share the Music 5), or the beginning of "Grand March" from Aida. Then, give students the opportunity to compose, notate and play their own fanfares and share them with the class. Have students identify for each selection: form, mode, compositional effects (such as augmentation, canon), chord progressions, and so on.

Recommended book: The Winter Solstice by Ellen Jackson. A Millbrook Press Library Edition, Brookfield, CT, 1994. ISBN 1-56294-400-2

The rising sun can be made of a circle of sturdy cardboard 18 to 24 inches in diameter. Cover the circle with gold foil wrapping paper. Make "rays" with long, narrow strips of cardboard fastened to the back of the sun at different angles. Cover the rays with gold garlands such as are used to put around Christmas trees. Tie a long piece of fish line to the top of the sun and run the line to a sturdy hook on the wall high above the performing area, then over to one side of the stage area, and securely fasten it there.

As the recording of "Return of the Sun" is heard, a stage hand raises the sun by slowly and steadily pulling on the fish line, then tying it off when it reaches the hook. For the best dramatic effect, as the sun is raised, it should be followed with a small spotlight. To create a spotlight effect with an overhead projector, see the diagram.

Other possibilities for a rising sun are to raise it from below like a stick puppet, to project animation of a rising sun on a computer, or even to use a helium-filled golden balloon as a sun!