The turning point I look forward to each year falls the day after my daughter’s birthday, a lovely midwinter reassurance that the light is coming.
Solstice is derived from the Latin, sōlstitium, loosely translated as the apparent standing still of the sun. To ancient civilisations, it looked like the sun stood still at that moment when its rays shine directly over the Tropic of Capricorn.
The importance of this astronomical event to the ancient peoples is reflected in Newgrange’s massive neolithic tomb, in its opening aligned to the ascending sun. When that single sunbeam shoots through the roof box at around 9am, it illuminates for seventeen minutes the burial chamber below, highlighting the geometric shapes carved in the ancient walls.
It is a magic time, long before clocks and calendars and compasses measured time and the distance between us, signifying the turn towards a new year. It is a time when the ancients speak to us, reassuring us that no matter how dark the days, the cycle will always begin again. There’s light on the horizon.
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But I live far away from Ireland these days, on the sunny shores of Lake Chapala in Mexico, where such rituals abound.
Here we have our own ritual for brighter days, in the form of a Danza de los Voladores ceremony atop poles on the waterfront almost daily.
The ritual dates back hundreds of years to pre-Columbian times.
It’s a testimony to the tenacity of indigenous groups in adapting their customs to the new order imposed by the Spanish and ensuring they live on from one generation to the next.
[ Newgrange tombs not just burial places for elite, new study showsOpens in new window ]
A handful of onlookers on the Ajijic malecon (boardwalk) pause to watch, smartphones at the ready to record. The voladores, in traditional costume, begin their solemn procession to a 30-metre high pole between two trees.
One by one, four men climb the pole to reach its summit. Here they are closer to the sun god, each of them representing the cardinal points as well as the elements.
All is quiet until a haunting melody begins as the leader, the caporal, hoists himself up to perch atop a tiny wooden platform, the tecomate. Bending, balancing, hopping from one foot to the other, he plays his flute and beats on a tiny drum, turning to face north, south, east and west.
This is all while the pole below him sways precariously in the breeze. No harness. No safety net. Only faith.
Then the moment we’re all waiting for – the flyers hurl themselves into the air. Headfirst, arms outstretched like wings, they allow the thin ropes tying them to the platform to unravel as they spin in ever-widening circles around the pole, streamers the colour of the rainbow trailing behind them in the sky.
The plaintive tune continues during their majestic descent, each man hoping to make 13 circuits – 52 representing the number of years on the Aztec calendar – imploring the gods to return the sun. Right before reaching the ground, a final flourish – a quick somersault.
Mortals again, they land softly to quiet utterances of “bravo” from a small group of spectators who know they just witnessed something sacred, something from another time, for all time. Legend has it that if they land on their feet, the Mayan gods will be pleased and bless us with longer days.
Perhaps it is an act of faith that brings us together to celebrate an ancient light show in a tomb in Ireland or a sky dance above a magical town in Mexico.
Together, on sacred ground, we are connected to the past and the future, ready to welcome brighter days and all good things. We are voladores, arms outstretched.
Originally from Antrim, Yvonne Watterson is now based near Guadalajara, Mexico following a 30-year career in public education. Her social justice advocacy as a high school principal in the United States earned her numerous honours, including the City of Phoenix Martin Luther King Living the Dream Award. She began a blog in 2011, after an invasive breast cancer diagnosis sent her searching for answers online. This grew into a practice of storytelling.
Most recently, she collaborated with Stephen Travers on The Bass Player – Surviving the Miami Showband Massacre yvonnewatterson.com
