The shortest day of the year in terms of sunlight may not at first glance seem reason to celebrate. However, the winter solstice means the days will now get longer so with people anticipating the longer days and warmer temperatures, so it was time for some brief festivities.
On Dec. 21, when there was sunlight for just over a mere nine hours in the Chicago area, approximately 40 hearty people — with many holding their dogs on leashes — arrived at Glencoe’s Shelton Park honoring the winter solstice in an event co-sponsored by the Friends of the Green Bay Trail and the Glencoe Park District.
“It is the shortest day of the year and we are celebrating the turn from winter to summer,” FGBT President Ann Reilly said of the seventh version of the event that originated in 2014. “We get the community out on a really cold day with the kids and dogs, it is wonderful. That is what I enjoy about it.”
For the second straight year, FGBT officials launched the program with FGBT trustees holding antlers, performed the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance, an English folk dance dating back to the 1400s.
“We thought it was a wonderful addition to the celebration of the passing of the darkest night as the dance was traditionally performed in the fall or winter as well as to seek the fall hunting season,” FGBT board member Meridith Clement said.
After watching the dance, attendees then walked nearly a half mile south on the trail from the park, with most people avoiding the hard to see ice patches, to Mary Street. After some lights illuminated the proceedings, it was time to sing “You are my Sunshine” and “Here Comes the Sun” by the Beatles representing the oncoming brighter days.
Glencoe resident Ashley Conrad, held her daughter Kate, 1 1/2, as her other daughter Elise, 5, and son Ian, 3, were close by joined by relatives and her dog Nash, donning a lighted harness.
“I think it is a fun thing to celebrate the shortest day of the year,” Conrad said, adding she participated in three or four of the previous versions. “My kids love getting all the lights on and it is something to do outside in winter when there is not a lot to do.”
The tranquil conditions as the temperature had a high of 28 degrees on 21st was a relief to some cognizant the anticipated deep freeze set to grasp the area the next day.
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“Given the forecast, I think we got pretty lucky,” Glencoe’s Dan Goodwin said.
After the festivities, people walked back to Shelton Park partaking in cookies and hot chocolate steps away from a bonfire closing out the celebration that ran for about an hour.
Two members of Go Green Winnetka, Liz Kunkle and Teri Cross, were on hand along with Kunkle’s two pure black Labradors, named Maggie Fetcher and Winston Churchwell, honoring legendary British prime ministers.
“It is the calm before the storm,” Kunkle said. “We have been friends of the Friends of the Green Bay Trail for a long time. We are happy to come out and celebrate the solstice. I think it is really fun and we are all about being on the outside and celebrating the natural environment.”
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.