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Monday, December 23, 2024

This morning, I will answer a question I left open in yesterday’s blog. I wondered if the first day after the winter solstice is ‘the pluperfect shortest day’ of the year.

Saturday was this year’s winter solstice, a year’s shortest day. However, Sunday was the first day after the solstice, an equally unique and equal turning point. Although technically still dark, Sunday significantly marked the return to longer days.

Sunday, as a “pluperfect shortest day,” acknowledges its key position on the threshold between shorter and longer daylights. It marks, as clearly as Saturday (winter solstice), the shortest day of the year.

The pluperfect tense refers to something that “has happened;” or an action that has occurred before another action occurs, equal to, or nearly equal to, the first. In this example, the first day after the solstice is the first day after the shortest day has passed.

In a traditional sense, this might not be grammatically precise. The idea rose playfully as I recognized that a “pluperfect shortest day” equals its preceding day by significantly marking daylights from decreasing to increasing. Shifts in the cycle of light and darkness remind us that gradual changes will bring subtle but noticeable transformations.

Sunday following the winter solstice was technically as dark as the preceding day, lengthening daylight by two minutes, making Sunday pluperfect–an equal and next marker of longer days about to return.

Although Sunday’s daylight was virtually indistinguishable from Saturday’s, Sunday boasted a different energy. The day seemed more hopeful, our reminder of light slowly returning and boosting us from winter’s depths.

Dear Friends: Increasing light minutes will become visible in a few weeks. Diana