Solstice

So after the play (see below), the Lovely Bride and I left the theater and saw a gathering at the Seattle Center Fountain. We wandered over and discovered that it was the Solstice celebration for Winterfest (yes, Solstice is still a few days, but this was the celebration). It was a wonderful (if chill in the gathering gloom) experience, with fire performers ringing the fountain, figures celebrating the old and new years, and people representing the planets, in orbit around the fountain. Mercury was a kid on rollerblades weaving around the fire performers, a heavily wrapped Venus next out, Earth Mother in the next ring out, Mars in camo, Jupiter regal in purple. Most of the crowd were at the Jupiter orbit (the ground level surrounding the fountain). Further out, slowmoving Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and solitary Pluto moving very slowly and lonely at the outmost edge of the lawn. No sign of Charon or other Transplutonian bodies.

Interesting thing is that there is a bit of closure for our year as well. Way back here, I mentioned that there were firedancers practicing at Gasworks Park. At the time I saw a lot of strange rigs - stuff that looked like sunbursts on pikes, fans, and hula hoops. This was part of the same group as performed here, and yes, they set the hula hoops on fire (for the record, the fire performers were Cique de Flambe, Ignis Devoco, and Northwest Fire Conclave).

In the end we got light-stick bracelets (provided by the Science Center) and headed home, but it was a sweet, mystical end of the day. Wish I had brought a camera.

More later,