Happy Winter Solstice!

Here is a wonderful poem about the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, and the longest night.

Reading poetry aloud is a great way to practice your speaking: it is slightly more exaggerated and theatrical than every day speech, which stretches us to be more expressive. Listen to the way the actor reads the poem...then, perhaps, try reading a few lines aloud yourself.

"The Shortest Day"
So the shortest day came, and the year died,
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen,
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing, behind us — listen!
All the long echoes sing the same delight
This shortest day
As promise wakens in the sleeping land.
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends, and hope for peace.
And so do we, here, now,
This year, and every year.
Welcome Yule!
-- Susan Cooper