Drinking chocolate for the Winter Solstice
And now that the winter solstice has passed, we can start to enjoy longer days. Although if you are puzzled by the morning sunrise stubbornly not budging, fear not! One of the weirder aspects of the winter solstice is that although the days are now lengthening, this is thanks to the evenings stretching out (and we’ve already started to enjoy these later sunsets). The latest sunrise here in the UK actually happens in early January – it’s all to do with a combination of the Earth’s tilt and its elliptical orbit around the Sun.
Stonehenge, Glastonbury Tor, Newgrange, Maeshowe and a host of other monuments testify to our predecessors reverence for the winter solstice. And on the other side of the world we know those who first discovered chocolate also were well aware of the winter solstice. The Mayans and the Aztecs designed many of their temples to celebrate the winter solstice. For example, in the Mayan Uaxactun temple complex, one temple has a special observatory platform for the winter solstice. And The Aztecs designed the famous Templo Mayor in Mexico City so that the sun’s position on the solstice aligns with, and highlights, specific architectural features (the lift at Vinte Vinte’s chocolate museum in Porto uses a lifesize wall to wall photo to show this). In addition, the Mayans and Aztecs celebrated the Winter Solstice with customs and ceremonies varying from decorating their houses with paper flags (to honour the god Huitzilopochtl), running races, storytelling marathons and, as part of Panquetzaliztli, sacrificing two slaves and two prisoners in a “juego de pelota” (ball game). Fortunately, unlike some of the other Aztec celebrations involving human sacrifice (e.g., Tenochtitlan) these ceremonies did not involve cocoa (for more on the “bloody” history of sacrifices with cocoa in Aztec times, please see here).
Given this, to celebrate the Solstice – and prepare for Christmas – can we recommend some craft drinking chocolate? If you’ve already purchased some drinking chocolate from Chocolarder, Pump Street, Menakao, Kokoa Kamili, etc. you are already all set. But if you haven’t, fear not! Just use up any nearly finished bars – and follow our suggestions on how to prepare drinking chocolate here (and most importantly, don’t use boiling water or milk!). And you can savour a quality drinking chocolate at any time – breakfast, lunch time or night. Plus take a leaf out of the Aztec and Mayan delight in drinking chocolate; try adding some spices, cinnamon, fruit zest or vanilla to discover some new personal favourites.
Our teams in London and Devon will be making themselves some well deserved craft drinking chocolate as well as taking some time off between Christmas and the New Year. So please pardon us if we are a little slower in responding to emails. We will still be shipping orders during this period, and both Royal Mail and DPD are operating. And we’ll also use this downtime to reflect on an eventful 2024 and also stick our necks out with a few predictions for 2025.
In the interim, we’d like to say thank you again for all your terrific support, and wish you – and all your loved ones, friends and colleagues – a great holiday season.
Sources
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30549149
https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2024/dec/19/10-places-to-see-winter-solstice-uk-ireland-not-stonehenge
https://cocoarunners.com/chocopedia/divinely-delicious-chocolate-and-religion/
https://lolomercadito.com/blogs/news/panquetzaliztli-the-aztec-celebration-before-christmas
https://www.mexicolore.co.uk/maya/chocolate/blood-of-the-gods
https://lolomercadito.com/blogs/news/panquetzaliztli-the-aztec-celebration-before-christmas
https://mayadecipherment.com/2015/12/29/birth-of-the-sun-notes-on-the-ancient-maya-winter-solstice/
