The day after winter Solstice's longest night is 19 seconds longer than the day before. These fleeting moments of light and visual warmth are precious where we live, just below the arctic.
We make a meal of salmon on the Solstice, we gather round the Yule tree and we share gifts of love to lighten the heart. The salmon's life is a potent symbol of rebirth, and this meal honors the cyclic nature of the season. Salmon return in the last year of their lives to the rivers and streams where they were spawned, spending the last of their life energy in spawning the next generation.
Every summer, when the days are long and the nights are oh so short, we journey to the river where the salmon are, we harvest gratefully the lives they offer and bring them home to our freezer. Our dipnets wait under the snow for the next season, and the salmon feed our bodies and lift our spirits through the dark and the cold.
