19 Dec Winter Solstice 2025: Mushroom Fest Weighs In!
The term “solstice” means “sun stands still.” On the year’s two solstices (winter and summer) the sun appears to halt in its incremental journey across the sky but change little in position during this time. Of course, contrary to appearances from Earth, the sun’s “changing position” throughout the year is actually caused by the rotation of the Earth on its tilted axis as it circles the sun. The solstice occurs twice a year (on or around December 22nd and June 21st) when the sun is farthest from the tilting planet’s celestial equator.
In modern times Christians all over the world celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ on Christmas Day, which falls on December 25. However, it’s believed that this date was chosen to offset pagan celebrations of Saturnalia and Natalis Invicti. Some say that celebrating the birth of the “true light of the world” was set in sync with the December solstice because from that point onwards, we experience more daylight in the Northern Hemisphere.
Read on for more from the Telluride Mushroom Fest.
Go here for more on the history of the Telluride Mushroom Festival. (Scroll back to 2009.)
Image courtesy Telluride Mushroom Festival.
Living in accordance with the seasons and their cyclical rhythms is part of what a forager does. It is how we learn the environments we call home by observing them as they shift, decay, rest, and return. As caretakers and stewards of place, it is our role to notice, to participate with intention, and to be in relationship with all living things. We are part of the systems we live in, and every decision we make leaves an impact, visible or not.
As we slip into the weekend in the Northern Hemisphere, we arrive at the winter solstice, the longest night of the year, when darkness stretches wide and envelops us in her cold embrace. We are drawn indoors, toward hearth fires and candlelight, warming cold toes on floor vents, hands wrapped around a steaming mug. This inward turning has always been the gift of the season. Long before now, people marked this moment with stories, rituals, and symbols many of them rooted in the forest floor, where mushrooms quietly rest underfoot pine, fir, and spruce.
There is magic waiting to be uncovered in these darkest of days. It is our invitation to remember and honor the light: the glow of a loved one’s smile, the sweetness of a long hug from an adoring little one, a beloved pet curled at your feet, the candle waiting to be burned in a ceremonial moment. Across cultures, fungi have been woven into the fabric of winter folklore and solstice traditions — as teachers, messengers, and liminal beings that blur the veil between worlds, decay and renewal, darkness and illumination.
On this Solstice weekend and season of celebration, we encourage you to embrace these long nights with intention. Choose rituals and routines that nourish your spirit and light up your soul. Write letters to loved ones under the glow of a sparkling tree, tell stories gathered around the heart of your home, bundle up around a fire with your neighbors, and slow down whenever you are able. Allow the season to hold you and teach you new ways of being, guided, perhaps, by the quiet wisdom of the fungi that have long accompanied humanity through many dark winters.
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