Stargazers gathered at the Salt Marsh Nature Center, at East 33rd Street and Avenue U, on Sunday evening, December 21st, to observe the night sky on the Winter Solstice.
Throughout the last quarter of the year, the Marine Park Alliance (MPA) celebrated several Festival of Lights ceremonies — global holidays that emphasize the importance of light, including Diwali, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Although the Winter Solstice marks the shortest day of the year, it still shows how important light is.
“Tonight is the solstice, so we’re going to see the night sky and what’s in it,” Chloe Zagami, a teen lead of the MPA’s cultural and volunteer program, said. “We’re also gonna have a bonfire, some storytelling and hot chocolate as well.”
Several residents came with their own binoculars and telescopes to see our celestial neighbors, such as Saturn and its rings, along with its largest moon, Titan.
Although several outlookers gazed at the stars, many gathered in the center’s backyard as Urban Park Rangers Rob Bradfield and Olivia Dossett provided attendees with heat and entertainment, lighting a bonfire and sharing historical stories of both European and Indigenous pasts.
Bradfield spoke about Sir Gawain and his journey to the Green Chapel, while Dossett spoke about the Lenape people, an Indigenous tribe that once lived in New York City, and their connection to maple trees.
“The MPA’s Festival of Light series reflects the fact that many different cultures have their way of celebrating the period of the year when it’s the darkest by bringing light into these dark days,” MPA Executive Director Scott Middleton said. “We’re here at the solstice, the last event of the year — the shortest day of the year — and even in harsh conditions, cold, dark, windy, there are still things that we can learn from nature.”
The MPA will host Mulchfest ’26 at the Marine Park Avenue U Parking Lot from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 10th, where volunteers will distribute mulch, remove holiday decorations and prep trees for the woodchipper. On Sunday, January 18th, there will be a Blood Drive at the Carro Community Center, 3000 Fillmore Avenue, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
For more information, please visit marineparkalliance.org/events/.
