Holiday Sail 2009
Our Winter Solstice Sailing trip was postponed for a week due to high surf warnings. So we re-named it a “holiday” sail and went on December 26.
Our twelve hardy passengers braved the cold winds and choppy waves to share some holiday time together. Our passengers included two groups of friends. People seemed to enjoy each others’ company and the thrill of being out on the water in brisk weather. Once we motored out into the Gulf, everyone was in an adventurous mood and agreed they wanted to try putting up the sails. So the engines were cut. Our intrepid volunteers and crew raised the sails while some of us sang a sea shanty. (Sea shanties were songs that sailors would sing as they raised sails on some of those large sailboats of yesteryear. It took a lot of effort in those days to raise the sails, and several men would have to work together and pull the lines in a steady rhythm. The songs were designed to keep them in rhythm and working together) (they are fun, too!)
Once we were under sail, the ride calmed down considerably.
I shared some insights about the holidays this time of year being all about light and darkness, death and rebirth. We are all part of those cycles, whatever our backgrounds are, simply because we are all on this planet and are all affected by its cycles.
Almost all the major religions have a festival this time of year, and most have some element of light involved: Hanukkah, the festival of lights, is a Jewish holiday; Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, who brought more spiritual light into the world; December 8 is the birthday of Buddhism, commemorating the enlightenment of the Buddha as he sat under the Bodhi tree; sometimes Ramadan, the holy days of Islam, fall in December; Winter Solstice is celebrated by many cultures and indigenous peoples around the world; Kwanzaa is a relatively new celebration with an emphasis on community and a kind of rebirth of pride and tradition. Many world saviors’ births were celebrated around the winter solstice. It is a very powerful time of the year and has been seen as such for millennia.
For earlier peoples, who might have been stuck inside for many months of cold and dark, dealing with depression this time of year was important. One cure for winter blahs was dancing. Another was singing, spending time with family and friends, eating good foods, safe flames (negative ions). So although in nature, this would be the quietest time of the year, it sounds like for centuries, this time has been punctuated with celebration.
One way that Europeans celebrated was with wassail. Wassail is a word from Middle English that is a contraction. It means, “To your health”. People would make this drink, wassail, which was probably fermented and maybe alcoholic. It often consisted of apple cider, mixed with other fruit juices and spices and simmered a long time. Then people could go wassailing, sort of like Christmas caroling (here we go a wassailing…) to the homes of friends and families and drink to their health and prosperity in the New Year. They would also go to the apple orchards and sing to and bless the trees, in hopes that the harvest would be good in the coming year. (“Here we come a wassailing among the leaves so green” means in the apple orchards!)
On our sail, we all shared a glass of home made wassail and did our own wassailing as we joined in a toast to a wonderful new year.
With that our program ended and we sat back and watched for sunset. The early evening was overcast, with a wintry sky. The sun peaked out enough to give us a lovely sunset. The sky looked wintry and pastel and the afterglow of sunset painted the tips of the waves a beautiful pink color. We watched for awhile as we started out journey back to the dock.
Thanks to Jan and Rob of Aquarian Quest, and to all the wonderful people who came and joined us!
Our twelve hardy passengers braved the cold winds and choppy waves to share some holiday time together. Our passengers included two groups of friends. People seemed to enjoy each others’ company and the thrill of being out on the water in brisk weather. Once we motored out into the Gulf, everyone was in an adventurous mood and agreed they wanted to try putting up the sails. So the engines were cut. Our intrepid volunteers and crew raised the sails while some of us sang a sea shanty. (Sea shanties were songs that sailors would sing as they raised sails on some of those large sailboats of yesteryear. It took a lot of effort in those days to raise the sails, and several men would have to work together and pull the lines in a steady rhythm. The songs were designed to keep them in rhythm and working together) (they are fun, too!)
Once we were under sail, the ride calmed down considerably.
I shared some insights about the holidays this time of year being all about light and darkness, death and rebirth. We are all part of those cycles, whatever our backgrounds are, simply because we are all on this planet and are all affected by its cycles.
Almost all the major religions have a festival this time of year, and most have some element of light involved: Hanukkah, the festival of lights, is a Jewish holiday; Christmas celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, who brought more spiritual light into the world; December 8 is the birthday of Buddhism, commemorating the enlightenment of the Buddha as he sat under the Bodhi tree; sometimes Ramadan, the holy days of Islam, fall in December; Winter Solstice is celebrated by many cultures and indigenous peoples around the world; Kwanzaa is a relatively new celebration with an emphasis on community and a kind of rebirth of pride and tradition. Many world saviors’ births were celebrated around the winter solstice. It is a very powerful time of the year and has been seen as such for millennia.
For earlier peoples, who might have been stuck inside for many months of cold and dark, dealing with depression this time of year was important. One cure for winter blahs was dancing. Another was singing, spending time with family and friends, eating good foods, safe flames (negative ions). So although in nature, this would be the quietest time of the year, it sounds like for centuries, this time has been punctuated with celebration.
One way that Europeans celebrated was with wassail. Wassail is a word from Middle English that is a contraction. It means, “To your health”. People would make this drink, wassail, which was probably fermented and maybe alcoholic. It often consisted of apple cider, mixed with other fruit juices and spices and simmered a long time. Then people could go wassailing, sort of like Christmas caroling (here we go a wassailing…) to the homes of friends and families and drink to their health and prosperity in the New Year. They would also go to the apple orchards and sing to and bless the trees, in hopes that the harvest would be good in the coming year. (“Here we come a wassailing among the leaves so green” means in the apple orchards!)
On our sail, we all shared a glass of home made wassail and did our own wassailing as we joined in a toast to a wonderful new year.
With that our program ended and we sat back and watched for sunset. The early evening was overcast, with a wintry sky. The sun peaked out enough to give us a lovely sunset. The sky looked wintry and pastel and the afterglow of sunset painted the tips of the waves a beautiful pink color. We watched for awhile as we started out journey back to the dock.
Thanks to Jan and Rob of Aquarian Quest, and to all the wonderful people who came and joined us!
