The Dec. 13 solstice celebration is expected to be the biggest ever.
AUBURN – For eight years, Buckfield singer Leah Wolfsong has been holding a concert and ceremony to celebrate the winter solstice.
The gatherings began in Portland and were small, drawing about 30 people. That number doubled when she moved the celebration to The Ballroom in Harrison.
It doubled again last year, to 150 people, when she held the event in Auburn, at the First Universalist Church on Pleasant Street.
This year she and more than a dozen other singers, drummers and dancers are returning to the church for what promises to be the largest and most dynamic celebration to date. The Dec. 13 Solstice Celebration Concert & Ceremony will take place from 7 to 9:30 p.m. in the sanctuary, which seats 250.
Wolfsong will be joined by percussionists Barbara Gail and Reinaldo Cortez, with appearances by Spirit of the Corn, a pow-wow drumming group from Standish, Wild Goddess Choir of Buckfield, Moonrise, an all-woman frame drum group from Mt. Vernon, and the Light Dancers.
She said the event has grown in part from a yearning in people for an alternative to the commercialization of the Christmas season. The winter solstice – this year it’s Dec. 22 – marks the first day of winter, the shortest day of the year, and the beginning of a gradual return to longer days of sunlight.
The concert invites participants to focus on the coming of winter as a time to “go into the dark as introspection, get still, and ponder what the world has been,” Wolfsong said. It’s a celebration that the light is returning even as the cold takes hold, she said, and a time to ask ourselves what’s going to be born into the light.
People of all faiths and spiritual traditions are invited to attend, she said.
“It’s about coming together and taking part in a ceremony honoring the season,” Wolfsong said.
More and more, she said, “People are looking for some way to make real the ceremony of the seasons.”
Cost is $10 adults, $8 seniors or students, and under 12 free. For more information, call 1-877-833-1372.
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