Winter Solstice Big Tree Hike

Although the solstice marks the beginning of winter, it also marks the beginning of a new solar year for those of us in the northern hemisphere, with the sun reaching its most southern point on the eastern horizon before beginning its six month journey northward again.

In Europe, plants played a major role in the celebration of the Winter Solstice (also known as Yule) with traditions such as decorating the halls with boughs of holly, mistletoe, pine, spruce, and fir (all considered sacred because they retained their foliage throughout the long winter); the decoration of live evergeen trees (the origin of our Christmas trees); and on the eve of the solstice a Yule log (often an entire tree) was set ablaze to burn through the night.

We’re not going to be decking the halls or decorating trees (and definitely not setting any yule logs ablaze!) but we will be celebrating the trees themselves by visiting the five largest trees at Sylvan Solace preserve – the largest of which trees has a diameter of nearly 5 1/2 feet!

Directions to the preserve:
http://bit.ly/SylvanSolacePreserve