麻豆约拍

The gloom of a British winter can be a little soul-sapping. And then the winter solstice canters in, ready to cheer us up. Taking place at the point of the year when the North Pole is tilted furthest away from the Sun, it delivers the fewest hours of sunlight of the year.

Here are 12 ways you can celebrate the return of the light.

1. Danza de los Voladores

The most dangerous of the solstice rituals has to be polo voladore in Guatemala. The Flying Pole dance is performed by Mayan Indians who honour the sun god by climbing on top of a 50-foot pole with a rope attached to one foot. As instruments play, they jump. If they land on their feet, this will please the sun god, who will begin to return.

2. Feast of Juul

The Feast of Juul was a pre-Christian fire festival. People would light a fire to symbolise the returning sun, and then keep a piece of the log as a good luck token and as kindling for next year’s fire. In England and other European countries it used to be burned to ash, and then kept as medicine, a charm or used as fertiliser on the fields.

3. Global Orgasm

The activist organisers of Global Orgasm were Donna Sheehan and Paul Reffell, who created the idea of participants throughout the world having an orgasm while they thought about peace. The first took place in December 2006. If you want to join in but find yourself unable to... um… hit the spot, as it were, you’re allowed a 24-hour window to perform in.

4. Saturnalia

This was an unbridled Roman feast of hedonism. It was symbolised by a reversal of the usual order and a relaxation of discipline, so masters served their servants, wars were suspended, businesses and schools were closed and a mock king was chosen, either a slave or a criminal, and he was encouraged to behave like a crazed despot for the week of the festival. It wasn’t all fun though – at the end of Saturnalia, he was killed.

5. Korochun

This is the name of the holiday celebrated by pagan Slavs. Hors, symbolising the old sun, shrinks and is then resurrected after he’s defeated the Black God of darkness, and becomes Koleda, the new sun. To celebrate it, you have to light a fire in a graveyard to keep your deceased loved ones warm, then organise a feast to honour them. You can also set fire to a wooden log at a crossroads.

6. Yald膩 Night

Iranian people celebrate Yald膩 night by getting all the family together, at the house of the oldest person.

Iranian people celebrate Yald膩 night, the night of the winter solstice by getting all the family together, at the house of the oldest person, and eat nuts, pomegranates and watermelons, drink and read poetry.

7. Our Lady in Darkness

If you fancy bringing a bit of old school paganism into your life, meditate in darkness, then welcome the birth of the sun by lighting candles, chanting and singing pagan carols.

8. Chaomos

This festival takes place in the northwestern corner of Pakistan over the winter solstice among the Kalasha people. A week long, it involves a series of ritual baths, singing, chanting, dancing, bonfires, feasts and a torchlight procession.

9. D艒ngzhì Festival

Glutinous rice balls, called tang yuan, are eaten at China's D艒ngzhì festival which signifies winter’s darkness being defeated by light.

10. The Lighting of the Serpent

Taking place in Ohio, this celebration involves the lighting of candles on a 400-metre long, three-foot high prehistoric mound in the shape of a snake. It is believed to have been built in AD400 by Native Americans.

11. Stonehenge

Druids in Britain visit Stonehenge to get the first rays of the solstice sun, and cut mistletoe, which is sacred to them.

12. Newgrange

Visitors to Newgrange, a huge Stone Age tomb mound built in the Irish countryside around 3200 BC, may be picked (if they are very lucky) to be allowed into the tunnel that faces the solstice and watch the light as it shines through the small window for 17-minutes.

NB: The 麻豆约拍 does not advise or condone jumping off poles or lighting fires at crossroads. If you’ll take our advice, have a bath, then eat some nice rice balls by the fire. That’ll probably do just as well.