December 17,1«8« The HeraM.nd The L, nt ^n On Sunday, the Sun Will Stop going South

By RHa Botowski It goes by many names: the beginning of winter. The shortest day of the year. Midwinter’s night. This year, it will occur on Dec. 21 at precisely 11:56 a.m.EST. To astronomers it is known as the winter solstice — the moment when the sun stops its southern migration in the sky. In fact, the wordaolatice comes from the Latin “solstitium/’ meaning “the sun comes to a halt." Most people today are barely aware of the winter solstice. But the early Indian peoples of North America celebrated that event with elaborate rituals. Indeed, recent archaeological evidence supports the theory that native Americans not only revered the sun but that they devoted much time' and ingenuity to observing its position and movement in the sky. THE SUN, LIKE THE LAND, played a central role in the lives of native Americans.' Its light and warmth brought life to the people and their crops. Its movements were incorporated into their cultures and thoughts. Its cycles lent a structure to their societies, providing a calendar on which to base their ceremonial, agricultural and hunting activities. "Early peoples saw themselves as an integral part of the natural world," says Von Del Chamberlain, an astronomer at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., who has studied astronomy in ancient cultures. "When the sun would rise, they were thankful; when it set, they were hopeful it would rise again. If they lost the sun, they knew that they would lose life itself. Thus sunwatching was a crucial activity, and the winter solstice was one of the most significant religious festivals of the year." "ON THE DAYOFTHEwinter solstice,” Chamberlain explains, "the sun rises and sets at its most southerly position on the horizon. At noon on this day, the sun appears at its lowest point in the southern sky. Early native Americans were afraid that the sun might continue to sink lower and lower in the sky until it disappeared altogether. They felt they

had to perform a variety of rituals to guarantee that the sun would continue to rise and set and return to the northern sky." The Hopi Indians of Arizona, for instance, celebrated the winter solstice for many hundreds of years with a complex, nine-day ceremony called "Soyal." Chants, dances, prayer offerings and public rituals were held to entreat the sun god to turn back from his southward course and begin anew a northward journey, bringing light and warmth for the coming growing season. Anthropoligists have observed the Soyal festivities firsthand since the late 19th century. Their reports indicate how the Hopi Indians made prayer sticks, or Pahos, of assorted objects, such as feathers, string, herbs and willow sticks. The sun priest placed the offerings at a "sun altar" facing the direction of the midwinter solstice, just as the sun peeped over the horizon. DURING ANOTHER PART of the ceremony, the priest, this time representing the sun god, held a rawhide sun symbol fastened to a stick. As he danced from east to west and back again, he shook the stick, symbolizing the coming and going of the sun. Recent archaeological discoveries reveal that native Americans not only carried out ceremonies but also developed ingenious ways to observe the sun. Consider, for example, Cahokia, in what is now southwestern Illinois. Cahokia was a major Indian city between the 10th and 14th centuries on the Mississippi River near present day St. Louis. In the 1960s, archaeologist Warren Wittry of the Cranbrook Institute of Science near Detroit discovered within the limits of the ancient city a series of pits, arranged in a circular fashion. From the shape and dimensions of the pits, Wittry surmised that they once held wooden posts which could have been used to mark the directions of sunrise at the summer and winter solstices and at the equinoxes (the two times of the year when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are everywhere of equal length). This finding and the discovery of several interesting artifacts

(among them a ceremonial goblet) suggest that the Cahokians might have used the site not only to observe the sun but also to stage ceremonies to mark the winter solstice. IN THE WESTERN United States, several large stone "medicine wheels" left centuries ago by the Plains Indians along the eastern flanks of the Rocky Mountains also seem to indicate various sun-watching techniques. Some of these wheels are aligned with important astronomical points, including the positions of sunrise and sunset oh the day of the summer solstice In June. The summer solstice is the longest day of the year, and for many ancient cultures it was the most important astronomical date. The Bighorn Medicine Wheel built around 1760 in northern Wyoming, for instance, is a circular structure of rocks laid out on the ground across a diameter of about 90 ft. Discovered by prospectors in the late 1880s, the structure has a large cairn, or rock pile, at its center, with "spokes" of rocks that radiate from the center to the rim. Five smaller edims lie along the rim at irregular intervals, and a sixth, more prominent cairn stands several feet outside at the end of one of the spokes. This odd formation takes on new meaning when viewed from an astronomical standpoint.

Tbs number of spokes in the wheel is 28, about the same as the number of days in a lunar month. The positions of two of the cairns indicate that they might have served as horizon markers for sunrise and sunset. Many astronomers now believe that this arrangement enabled the Plains Indians to mark the time of the summer solstice with precision. "TO THE ANCIENTS,"Chamberlain says.

"astronomy was a fundamental part of everyday life, incorporating religion, art, mythology. It was part of their concept of them selves, their origins and their world. It provided a calendar that regulated agricultural activities, essential to communities like the Hopi whq eked out a marginal living from the land. It also served to regulate the rituals that gave the community an identity." Todsy, some native

American celebrations of the sun survive in ceremonies and art — the Hopis, for instance, still celebrate Soyal — although th^sun no longer plays the same crucial role in their lives as it did in the lives of their ancestors. But to ancient native American Astronomers, it was only natural that the Sun — so central to life itself — should be so closely observed Rita Bobowski writes /or the Smithsonian News Service.

jobless Fund Tax Going Up

TRENTON - Labor and Industry Commissioner John J. Horn has alerted New Jersey’ employers that they will begin paying increased federal unemployment taxes in January. Horn said the increases are a result of an earlier recession period, 1975-78, an economic downturn which was described as the worst recessionary period since the 1990s and which resulted in the depletion of the state’s unemployment trust fund. HORN NOTED THAT New Jersey was forced to borrow $735 million to continue the payment of unemployment insurance benefits. The Increased taxes will go toward repayment of the outstanding debt.

During the past two years, New Jersey has been able to repay $83 million from the trust fund, Horn said. Assistant Commissioner Arthur O’Neal, who heads Labor and Industry's Income Security section, explained that employers pay two types of taxes to the unemployment insurance sytem. State contributions are paid to the Division of Unemployment and Temporary Disability . Insurance which are deposited into the unemployment trust fund. These monies may be utilized for only one purpose — the payment of benefits to eligible unemployed individuals. EMPLOYERS PAY contributions at varying rates (1.2 per cent to 6.2 per cent)

depending upon their individual experience, O’Neal said. The base upon which state taxes are paid varies each year depending upon the average weekly wage in covered employment. The tax base for 1980 is the first $6,900 earned by each employee. ( This amount will increase to $7,500 in 1981. IN ADDITION, the federal share of the extended benefit program is funded through the FUTA tax. This tax is paid at the rate of 3.4 per cent on taxable wages of 96,000. However, if the state law meets federal requirements, as is the case with New Jersey, employers receive a credit of 2.7 per cent, which leaves a net federal tax of .7 per cent to be paid each year. *

According to O'Neal, employers of states that fail to repay the full amount of the outstanding loan are subject to an increase of .3 per cent In the federal tax each year until the debt is totally repaid. This means that New Jersey employers will begin paying an additional $18 per worker (,3 percent x $6,000) in January, 1981 for calendar year 1960. During, each subsequent year the federal tax will increase by an additional .3 per cent. O'Neal estimates that it will take at least five years to repay the loan in this manner barring any future borrowing by New Jersey if the economy takes a significant

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