Happy Solstice

Today is the darkest day of the year.  The official daylight is 6 hours, 56 minutes long.  Sun up at 8:39 am and down at 3:35 pm.  It is dark.  The Danes fight off the dark with light, especially "living lights"  i.e. candles.  Candles are everywhere.  We see them in the windows of beauty salons,  great big candelabras burning away.  Candles and lanterns are outside the doors of shops, the most ordinary taverns and restaurants and often at every cash register in stores like this big department store.

People burn lots of candles in their homes.  One can see the flickering light as we bike home in the dark.

Also in the depths of the dark time, there is Tivoli.  This is the over hundred-fifty-year-old amusement park/ park in downtown Copenhagen.  

At Christmas, they light up the place with incredible colored and white lights.  People flock to the place, riding thrilling roller coasters in the cold and dark  (I can't imagine it), eating out at the many restaurants, drinking down hot-mulled spiced wine, and trying their hand at the games of chance and skill.  It is a pretty magical place this time of year and it does cheer the soul.

So tomorrow the days begin to get longer.  We will still burn the candles for much longer.  They are a source of light, warmth and "hygge", the Danish concept of enjoying the coziness of being together.  We are in the midst of  "hygge" these days.  Hope all is well out there.