Cranbrook Art Museum marks longest night of year with solstice celebration

Bloomfield Hills ― The longest night of the year got a touch lighter Thursday as hundreds gathered at the Cranbrook Art Museum for a special winter solstice celebration.

They gathered to mark the solstice in an event that included lantern-making, wreaths and performances by Ann Arbor folk group En Gång Till. Participants made lanterns with LED lights and took part in a procession leading from the art museum to Cranbrook's science institute.

Lyla Catellier, curator of public programs for the Cranbrook Art Museum, said gathering, part of its Free Third Thursdays programming, also celebrated the traditions of Scandinavian heritage and Cranbrook's own roots.

"Our lead architect Eliel Saarinen was Finnish. We also had a head ceramicist, Maija Grotel, who was here for 30 years, who also was Finnish," she said. "And our head sculptor as the (Cranbrook) Academy was formed, Carl Milles, was Swedish. So we’re really excited about celebrating those traditions and creating an opportunity for the community to really come together."

The night included Scandinavian-inspired food, crafts and music.

En Gång Till plays traditional and contemporary Swedish compositions with a range of instruments, including a traditional fiddle and nyckelharpa, or Swedish keyed fiddle. The group's name refers to what Swedish musicians say to each other when wanting to play a tune “one more time.”

According to the National Weather Service, the winter solstice marks the shortest day and longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, it occurs when the sun is directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, which is located at 23.5° south of the equator and runs through Australia, Chile, southern Brazil, and northern South Africa.

Starting Saturday, the days will start being longer and the sun will be slightly higher up, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac.