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Winter Solstice: The Unconquered Sun
http://www.shambhala.org/arts/fest/unconquered.html

At the Winter Solstice, we celebrate Children's Day to honour our children 
and to bring warmth, light and cheerfulness into the dark time of the year. 
Holidays such as this have their origin as "holy days". They are the way 
human beings mark the sacred times in the yearly cycle of life.

In the northern latitudes, midwinter's day has been an important time for 
celebration throughout the ages. On this shortest day of the year, the sun is 
at its lowest and weakest, a pivot point from which the light will grow 
stronger and brighter. This is the turning point of the year. The romans 
called it Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birthday of the Unconquered Sun.

The Roman midwinter holiday, Saturnalia, was both a gigantic fair and a 
festival of the home. Riotous merry-making took place, and the halls of 
houses were decked with boughs of laurel and evergreen trees. Lamps were kept 
burning to ward off the spirits of darkness. Schools were closed, the army 
rested, and no criminals were executed. Friends visited one another, bringing 
good-luck gifts of fruit, cakes, candles, dolls, jewellery, and incense. 
Temples were decorated with evergreens symbolizing life's continuity, and 
processions of people with masked or blackened faces and fantastic hats 
danced through the streets.

The custom of mummers visiting their neighbours in costume, which is still 
alive in Newfoundland, is descended from these masked processions.

Roman masters feasted with slaves, who were given the freedom to do and say 
what they liked (the medieval custom of all the inhabitants of the manor, 
including servants and lords alike, sitting down together for a great 
Christmas feast, came from this tradition). A Mock King was appointed to take 
charge of the revels (the Lord of Misrule of medieval Christmas festivities 
had his origin here).

In pagan Scandinavia the winter festival was the yule (or juul). Great yule 
logs were burned, and people drank mead around the bonfires listening to 
minstrel-poets singing ancient legends. It was believed that the yule log had 
the magical effect of helping the sun to shine more brightly.

Mistletoe, which was sacred because it mysteriously grew on the most sacred 
tree, the oak, was ceremoniously cut and a spray given to each family, to be 
hung in the doorways as good luck. The celtic Druids also regarded mistletoe 
as sacred. Druid priests cut it from the tree on which it grew with a golden 
sickle and handed it to the people, calling it All-Heal. To hang it over a 
doorway or in a room was to offer goodwill to visitors. Kissing under the 
mistletoe was a pledge of friendship. Mistletoe is still forbidden in most 
Christian churches because of its Pagan associations, but it has continued to 
have a special place in home celebrations.

In the third century various dates, from December to April, were celebrated 
by Christians as Christmas. January 6 was the most favoured day because it 
was thought to be Jesus' baptismal day (in the Greek Orthodox Church this 
continues to be the day to celebrate Christmas). Around 350, December 25 was 
adopted in Rome and gradually almost the entire Christian Church agreed to 
that date, which coincided with Winter Solstice, the Yule and the Saturnalia. 
The merry side of Saturnalia was adopted to the observance of Christmas. By 
1100 Christmas was the peak celebration of the year for all of Europe. During 
the 16th century, under the influence of the Reformation, many of the old 
customs were suppressed and the Church forbade processions, colourful 
ceremonies, and plays.

In 1647 in England, Parliament passed a law abolishing Christmas altogether. 
When Charles II came to the throne, many of the customs were revived, but the 
feasting and merrymaking were now more worldly than religious.

Here in Nova Scotia outdoor coloured lights play an important part in the 
local celebration of the mid-winter season. With the day turning to darkness 
so early in the North, it is cheering to look out into the cold and dark at 
lights sparkling and glittering in the crisp air.

Our celebration of Children's Day is inspired not only by the pagan 
celebrations of mid-winter but arises also out of the Japanese holidays of 
Boy's Day and Doll's Day, which are two separate days in the spring, when 
boys and girls of a certain age are presented to the temple and honoured with 
special gifts. The Shambhala Children's Shrine is modeled after the display 
of ancestral dolls traditional in homes on Doll's Day.

Our sangha is our village, our clan, our family. Our children belong to all 
of us, and are bright reminders of the future of Buddhism. We celebrate them 
and the Great Eastern Sun together at the darkest time of the year, with 
open-hearth parties and cheerful festivities.