The day of the long shadow is here. Winter Solstice. The celebrated shortest day of the year, where sunlight skims low over the sky in the northern hemisphere, the earth’s axis teeters away from the sun and into the longest night and winter we go.

The Saltbox Solstice in December of 2012 memorialized those lost during Sandy Hook, which had taken place but a few weeks before.

If you’d like gather with others to celebrate the occasion, look no further than the Ramapo Saltbox in Torne Valley. The Saltbox will welcome the winter with host seasonal solstice late afternoon event, beginning at 2 p.m., complete with music and stories and year end wishes.

Think about bringing a dish to share as the event is a potluck.

Sunday’s solstice at the Saltbox continues a annual tradition that’s taken place even before the small educational shack opened to the public. Located in Torne Valley on Torne Valley Road, Chuck Stead, the driving force behind construction of the educational facility, invites friends and students to the Saltbox to take stock of the past year and to break bread beside a warm wood stove fire. This year, the Town of Ramapo will video the proceedings for broadcast.

The Ramapo Saltbox ERC is a recreated 19th century Ramapo Iron Works structure assembled under the guidance of Stead and students from BOCES of Rockland, Rockland AmeriCorps, Ramapo College undergraduates, and various other organizations brought together through the on-going project.

Part working museum, classroom and research center, the project has been led by Stead’s ongoing research into the Ford Motor Company paint sludge pollution throughout the Ramapo Mountains, and supported by the Town of Ramapo and Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence through continuing historic preservation projects.

Find a map and more info on the Ramapo Saltbox here.