Children’s Day & Winter Solstice Celebrations on Sunday, December 19th
This Sunday morning after public sitting, we will pay tribute to Children’s Day and the Winter Solstice with a couple of short readings and our festively decorated shrine. We invite you to wear something festive!
Sunday, December 19, 2021
Denver Center
9:00 – 10:00 am Group meditation practice
10:00 – 10:15 am Children’s Day and Winter Solstice
Click Here to Participate!
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A Message from the Shambhala Board
December 14, 2021
Dear Shambhala Friends,
Warm greetings! We hope you are well.
You are invited to a fun-filled celebration of Children’s Day and the solstice as a way to connect with the cycles of the seasons and the importance of family and children. This is a family-friendly Shambhala Sunday Gathering hosted by the Touching the Earth Collective.
Sunday, December 19, 2021 at 1:00 pm Mountain
Shambhala Online
Click Here to Register!
The Touching the Earth Collective is a group of Shambhalians who clearly see the need for an urgent response to human-caused environmental degradation. Touching the Earth warriors invite individual and collective action for the rebalancing, protection and celebration of a healthy, living world.
The Shambhala Office of Families and Children is committed to creating spaces for children and parents to connect to their own goodness, wisdom, kindness, and strength.
Please join both our local community and people around the globe as we celebrate the solstice and Children’s Day. We hope to see many of you there!
We would also like to share resources and Children’s Day traditions and ideas with you to help you plan for this important annual event.
Children’s Day falls around December 21st, the time of the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, and the Summer Solstice for the Southern Hemisphere and provides a special opportunity to express appreciation for and with our children. Because the winter solstice marks the time of year when the night is longest and daylight has waned, light is a special characteristic of this holiday. Light is also a source of delight, and joy in light for Children’s Day in the Southern Hemisphere can be expressed with torches, sparklers or other more summer oriented and outdoor activities.
A couple of elements are hallmarks of all Shambhala holidays:
- Our connection with the natural world and the elements around us. For Children’s Day, this connection is often brought in with greenery to decorate our homes and a Children’s Day shrine, but can also include outdoor activities like bonfires, neighborhood walks or hikes, or creating flower arrangements with children.
- Sangha and community is at the heart of all Nyida Days too. Finding ways to enjoy time with family, friends, neighbors and sangha on or around Nyida Days feels especially heartwarming and important for building traditions and memories for our families and children.
At the heart of the Children’s Day festivities is the shrine, the representation of the dignity of the family, the joy and creativity of the youthful heart, and the celebration of the senses.
Centers, Groups and individual families are encouraged to create a Children’s Day shrine. The shrine can become the main focal point for indoor play for days or weeks. This is their time to join heaven and earth, and a shrine becomes an opportunity to talk about principles like community, caring for the earth and animals, and the senses. Decorating the shrine is a family project, with special contributions from the children. This shrine is usually a temporary creation, set up 1-3 weeks before Children’s Day and dismantled around the calendar year-end.
For resources about how to create a Children’s Day Shrine, and include Children’s Day traditions in your home, you can click here.
Wishing you a wonderful holiday season,
The Shambhala Board:
Mark Blumenfeld
Susan Engel
Lilly Gleich
Peter Nowak
Tai Pimputkar
Susan Ryan
Paulina Varas
