How You Can Find the Summer & Winter Solstice

    The Solstice is when the sun is at its furthest point from the equator or equinox, either north or south.  At the time of the summer solstice, the day light hours are the longest.  At the time of the winter solstice the day light hours are the shortest.  These times of the year are June 21 and December 21 or 22.

    The Creator set  "two great lights" ... "in the firmament of heaven." Genesis 1:14, 16.  The greater light, "the sun to rule by day." Psalm 136:8, determines the four seasons, which are  Spring (when the sun is at the equator), Summer (when the sun reaches its furthest point going north),  Autumn (when the sun returns to the equator), and Winter (when the sun reaches its furthest point going south).

    Our Creator even said after the flood that, "While the earth remaineth, seedtime (Spring) and harvest (Autumn), and cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Genesis 8:22

    "Thou hast set all the borders of the earth: Thou hast made summer and winter." Psalm 74:17

    Therefore even today, we have four seasons, and He expects us to know when "winter is past" Song of Solomon 2:11, and when  "summer is ended" Jer. 8:20  by observing the spring and fall equinoxes.

    I would not say that observing the solstices is required, but it will help us understand when the seasons are at hand.

    The main focus of course is the Vernal Equinox, and taking the first new  "light in the firmament" of heaven (the visible crescent of the moon) which will  "give light upon the earth" to be your  "sign" to begin the month of Abib, the New Biblical Year, thus establishing the rest of the year according to the Calendar that our Creator set fourth, and to observe His festivals.

    Remember  "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." Acts 7:22.  So during the forty years in the wilderness, he knew how to determine the year without a barley harvest.  And he knew about equinoxes and solstices.

Now How to Find the Summer and Winter Solstice

    Take a 4x8 ply board and paint it white, which will help, because you may want to mark on it with a pencil.  Then take the ply board and set it up in the north and south direction so that the morning sun will shine on it.  To set it up, plant a couple of poles behind it and drill small holes in the board so that you can take bailing wire or whatever and tie the board to the poles, or do what ever it takes to stabilize your ply board.  Then take take a 1x4 or 1x6 or whatever you have and drill a 1 inch hole in one end of it.  Make sure its about 10 or 12 feet long.  At about 16 to 20 feet  East, in front of your ply board, set up your 1x4, plant a pole behind it for stabilizing it.  Then the morning sun should shine right through the hole you drilled and on to the ply board in the background.  What it should look

       On about June 21 your sunlight circle  will be at its furthest point on the south end of your ply board.  On about December 21 the sunlight circle will be at its furthest point on the north end of your ply board.

    Now when the sun reaches its furthest point going south and shows up on the north end of your ply board, it is no reason to through a festival in honor of this event, or celebrate a Mass in honor of this event.  This is what the pagan sun worshippers did!  The pagans considered this to be the time of year when the  "sun" was born.  This is when the sun began to grow and the days began to lengthen. 

    I think it somewhat amazing that sun worshippers did not celebrate the sun as it declined in the west, but rather when it strengthened.  They prayed at the sun rising in the East, but not the sun declining in the west.  The worshippers of YAHUWAH anciently worshipped toward the West facing the law in the most holy place with their backs to the rising sun.  It is considered an  "abomination" to turn your back to the law and worship toward the rising sun (see Ezekiel 8:16).

    "When the Julian calendar was introduced (45 Before the Messiah), the equinox fell on the 25th of March."  This was done  "to restore the vernal equinox to the 25th of March, the place it occupied in the time of Numa." Encyclopedia Britannica  9th Edition. Volume 4,  page 591.    Numa Pompilius was the second king of Rome who reigned from 714 to 672 B.C.E..

    The Julius Caesar calendar was in use for 1,600 years, it provided a year of 365.25 mean solar days.  But the year consisted of 365.242195 days.  The Julian calendar lengthened the year by .0078046 of a day, which in 128 or 129 years amounted to a whole day.  By the time of the Council of Nicea, which was conviened in 325, the vernal equinox was found to be March 21st.  And by the time of 1582 (when the Gregorian calendar was introduced) the vernal equinox had retrograded to the 11th of March.  So in order to return the equinox back to its former place (that is, March 21 the place it was at the council of Nicea) pope Gregory XIII directed ten days to be suppressed in the calendar.  The Calendar thus appeared in 1582.

   If March 25 was the vernal equinox when Julius Caesar introduced his calendar, then it stands to reason that December 25 was the winter solstice of ancient times.  The pagans considered their  "sun" god to be born at this time each year.  Mithra was the Persian god of light, his birthday was December 25.  The   +   is a solar symbol, and the initiated in the Mithraic mysteries were marked on the forehead with a cross.  This reminds me of what Catholic priests do on Ash Wednesday, they mark the sign of the cross on the forehead of their worshippers.

    In the light of all this information, why would anyone want to try and celebrate the birth of the Saviour at the time of the ancient winter solstice.  The Hebrew Messiah YAHUSHUA said it was vain to try and worship Him in this manner, that it would be of no profit and worthless (see Matthew 15:9).

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