WINTER SOLSTICE: Longest night, Sun returns Right now we are in the days of lighting up the darkness, with yule logs and candles and tinsel and greenery and bows, through today, the shortest day of the year, and tonight, Saturday night, the longest night of the year.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice occurs on Sunday December 21, 2008 at 7:04 AM EST and 12:04 UT (Universal Time).

Yule is when the dark half of the year relinquishes to the light half.

Starting the next morning at sunrise, the sun climbs just a little higher and stays a little longer in the sky each day. Known as Solstice Night, or the longest night of the year, much celebration was to be had as the ancestors awaited the rebirth of the Oak King, the Sun King, the Giver of Life that warmed the frozen Earth and made her to bear forth from seeds protected through the fall and winter in her womb. Bonfires were lit in the fields, and crops and trees were "wassailed" with toasts of spiced cider.

After the longest night of the year, tonight, Saturday night, tomorrow the sun finally reappears and begins the journey through the light. Now that's worth celebrating! Happy solstice Canada! The light returns. yahoo!