The Mayan Winter Solstice occurred last week, as it always does on December 21 of each year. The sun is situated at the furthest point from the Earth in the Northern Hemisphere on that day which was reverently observed by the ancient Maya to mark “a new cycle of time.” The lighting of incense and offering up of prayers for a fruitful spring season ahead is still a tradition observed today.
At the ruins of Chichen Itza on this day the incredible sight of the sun seemingly climbs up the edge of the towering El Castillo temple as it rises into the sky to amaze onlookers. Bright sunshine radiates upon the southern and western sides of the temple while the northern and eastern sides remain hidden in complete darkness.

The winter solstice and the fall equinox (subject of this previous post) are important dates in Beverly and Steve Smirnis’s yet-to-be-named story that will be made into a screenplay in 2022.

Here’s a sneak peek:
Two young lovers went to Chichen Itza to celebrate the winter solstice. The child born to the young American girl, Isabella, and her lover, Dacey, from Tulum arrived nine months later and precisely on the date of the fall equinox. Fifteen years later, the two meet again when Isabella returns to Mexico for another vacation and by chance (or was it really chance?) bumps into the man she still dreams about. He has no clue about her pregnancy or his son.
Isabella and Dacey have many questions as they discover secrets from the past and learn that their first and second meetings were not at all a coincidence. The will of the ancient Maya would come to be!
(C) Beverly & Steve Smirnis 2021

(left). Steve and Beverly in Tulum, the setting of their new fiction series.