Many congregate in San Juan Bautista to witness the winter
solstice
BY ANTHONY HA STAFF WRITER
San Juan Bautista – Thursday morning, a crowd gathered at Mission San Juan Bautista. Some waited in the pews of the mission’s darkened chapel. Others huddled outside, all eyes directed eastward.
Although the visitors came from different towns and held different religious beliefs, everyone came for the same reason – to watch the sun rise after the longest night of the year. On the morning of the winter solstice, a beam of light traditionally shines in through the chapel window and strikes its altar.
Garth Hughei is visiting the area to care for his ailing father. He said he came out to the mission to catch a beautiful sunrise.
“It reminds us that this is God’s world,” Hughei said.
He added that as an Oregon resident, the early morning chill – temperatures dipped into the low-30s – didn’t bother him at all.
Thursday was also amateur photographer Chester Ng’s first solstice at the mission. Ng drove over from Monterey in the hope of snapping some spectacular photos, and he said he wasn’t bothered by the cloudy weather.
“Clouds add to the texture of the sky,” Ng said. “Without them, it wouldn’t be as interesting.”
As sunrise approached, music began both inside and outside the chapel. Inside, Shannon Frediani sang hymns that echoed through the pews. Outside, William Giles beat his drum and chanted.
Frediani said she’s traveled from Watsonville to the mission for many winter solstices. She said that it was during a visit to the mission’s chapel that she was first filled with the inspiration to sing.
Now she heads the Voices of Angels foundation, a nonprofit group whose activities include bringing “inspired” music into prisons and veteran’s hospitals. Frediani noted that her songs are not traditional hymns.
“Like Frediani, Giles said his music comes from instinct and spirit, not a written score. According to Giles – who said that one of his great-grandfathers was an American Indian of the Seneca tribe – he just plants his feet into the ground and tries to capture “the heartbeat of the Earth.”
He explained, “You try to be a channel to pick up the pulse.”
Giles added that the winter solstice is an important time for him, because it gives people a chance to reconnect with nature – something he considers all too rare in modern society.
When the sun finally rose Thursday morning, its rays were muted by the clouds.
But workers opened the chapel doors, allowing the diminished light to spill across the altar.
And although several visitors acknowledged that the effect was less dramatic than in the past, Giles said he doesn’t mind.
“It’s always fine,” he said. “Last year, it rained, and I was the only one out here. So this is great.”
