Sunday, December 04, 2011

"Up All Night: A Technopagan Winter Solstice" 2011 edition, coming December 21st

Get Ready! "Up All Night: A Technopagan Winter Solstice" 2011 edition, coming soon...

And some of you may ask: What the heck is this "all-night technopagan" thing he's talking about??

It's an annual tradition here at the Cauldron; it started when a bunch of us realized that we like to pass the December solstice--for the northern hemisphere, it's the winter solstice and therefore the longest night of the year--by staying awake all night long. (Or trying to stay awake all night long!) We thought: Why not do it together? Why not use the magic of the Internet to connect us into one global pagan party for the night, and stay up together?

And so, with Randall graciously offering to host us, "Up All Night: A Technopagan Winter Solstice" was born.

It's really simple: A dedicated thread will start here in "Holidays and Festivals" right before nightfall on the night of the solstice, to which everyone is welcome to come and go and contribute as they please. Some of us go the distance for an all-nighter; some people drop in just for part of the night; some lucky sonuvaguns in the southern hemisphere rub our noses in the the warmth and daylight they're basking in (since it's they're summer solstice, the sun-kissed devils)...just about anything goes (within the usual board rules, of course).

In previous years, we've done "non-themes": sharing recipes one year, sharing stories around our "virtual campfire" the next, sharing the night's photos/images last year, etc. Non-themes are, as the name suggests, non-binding--just a starting point to get ideas going. (Recipes always seem to come up no matter what the non-theme...chocolate mug cake, anyone?) Any ideas for a non-theme for this year? Chime in, please!

People with better chat skills than I also do a MUX chat here that night. (I'm going to have to learn how to do that, so I can participate in that aspect...I missed a lot of the best chatter last year by being MUX-clueless.)

My favorite part each year is vicariously watching the march of darkness across the globe, via various Cauldronites' posts. It makes the anticipation of sunset absolutely delicious!

This year, the solstice occurs at about 5:30 AM Universal Time on December 22, so we'll be celebrating the night before, beginning at nightfall on Wednesday, December 21. Watch for the "Up All Night: A Technopagan Winter Solstice" thread to appear right around then.

For an idea of what goes on, you can see last year's all-night gabfest on the old board, here:
http://www.ecauldron.net/forum/index.php?topic=14887.0

So...who's up for it this year?

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