Event held at The Roundhouse’s Creekside Park starting at 6 p.m.

Beacon Winter Solstice Celebration 2011. Photo by Linda T. Hubbard
Beacon Winter Solstice Celebration 2011. Photo by Linda T. Hubbard

The Third Annual Winter Solstice Celebration led by the Greenwoman (a.k.a. Linda Law) is to be held on Friday, Dec. 21, with a rain date of Saturday, Dec. 22. It will begin at 6 p.m. and will be at Creekside Park, on Main Street at Herbert Street.

Linda Law is an artist, herbalist and performance artist whose work is about making connection with nature. In her alter ego as the Greenwoman, she designs events and creates art that is designed to open people to the magic that abounds in the natural world.

This year the celebration will acknowledge the end of the Mayan Calendar on Dec. 21, 2012, an auspicious date that marks the potential for a big change in the world. A ceremony will be held to call back the light at the end of the longest night of the year and to state the intent to make personal change to aid in the healing of this planet. In the face of global climate changes, each person should make changes to help facilitate a shift that will return this planet into balance. The ceremony is designed to provide opportunities to set intention to make changes for the greater good of the planet.

The event will begin with a traditional fire ceremony within a circle, opened by Evan Pritchard, a descendant of the Micmac people (part of the Algonquin nations) and founder of the Center for Algonquin Culture. Dominico Petrillo will be the local fire keeper/artist. The opening will be followed by musical performances by Norman Lowrey, composer, mask maker and professor of music at Drew University, who will use his shamanic singing masks.

A participatory drum circle is also planned, so participants are encouraged to bring drums and rattles that will be a part of the festivities to call in the energy of the returning sun. Various other local artists and performers and a couple of surprise guests will join the celebration to add their magic to the proceedings until the circle is brought to a close with a ceremony to extinguish the fire, calling on all present to participate in returning the park to its previous pristine condition.

The group will then process along Main Street to Beacon Yoga Center, 464 Main St., where a storytelling circle and a potluck event will take place. Potluck donations can be brought to Beacon Yoga Center between 4 and 5:45 p.m., before the ceremony begins. Donations are requested for the Beacon Yoga Center, who is allowing the use of their space.

This is a free event sponsored by BeaconArts for the third time, and it is appropriate for children and free spirits of all ages. For more information on this event and all of Beacon’s holiday events, go to beaconarts.org.

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