EUGENE–Learn all about the winter solstice–and cheer yourself up on the year’s shortest, darkest day with hot cider, warm cookies, holiday lights and camaraderie–from 4:30 to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 21, at the University of Oregon Museum of Natural History, 1680 E. 15th Ave.

Local experts on astronomy, birds, world celebrations and winter plants will speak, and everyone will take home a solstice treat of sunflower seeds to help their backyard birds through the winter.

Cost is $3 each–$2 for museum members–and $5 for families. Free parking will be available in front of and behind the museum.

The museum store, featuring books on the Pacific Northwest, handcrafted jewelry, petroglyph designs and toys, will be open for last-minute holiday shopping.

At 4:45 p.m., Nancy Slight-Gibney, president of the Friends of the Museum of Natural History, will welcome guests to the event, a benefit for the museum support group. Then, a series of well-known local naturalists and cultural experts will speak on the following schedule:

• At 5 p.m., Nicolas Gulino, a teacher at Sheldon High School’s Spanish Immersion Program and an amateur astronomer, will talk about the heavenly reasons for the solstice. He is a member of the Friends of Pine Mountain Observatory, the university’s astronomical research site 30 miles southeast of Bend in central Oregon.

• At 5:30 p.m., Vjera Arnold, a Springfield home-schooled student, will talk about her observations of local birds. Arnold has recorded more than 360 species during the past four years, many of them in the pear tree in her back yard. She was part of an all-teen team participating in the Point Reyes Birdathon in California last fall, is a member of the board of the Oregon Field Ornithologists and leads occasional bird walks for the Audubon Society.

• At 5:45 p.m., David Wagner, noted Willamette Valley plant expert, will talk about winter plant life. Co-founder of the Mt. Pisgah Arboretum and the Eugene Natural History Society, he spearheaded plant walks and parks cleanup projects that have been adopted broadly throughout the community. Wagner was the curator of the UO Herbarium for many years before it was moved to Oregon State University.

• At 6 p.m., Herb Wisner, a favorite interpreter of the life of birds to local schoolchildren, will talk about local birds in winter. A UO senior instructor emeritus in biology and longtime museum tour leader, Wisner has taught courses on the animal kingdom and the natural history of birds at all levels from junior high to university. He has worked as a researcher on most of the museum’s biology exhibits.

• At 6:15 p.m., Twilo Scofield, a folklorist, musician, storyteller and retired elementary school teacher, will talk about folklore and rituals of plants during the winter solstice and how Yule customs resemble solstice celebrations.

• At 6:30 p.m., Nancy Slight-Gibney, anthropology information specialist and head of the acquisitions department of the UO Library System, will discuss some of the archaeological evidence that gives us an understanding of Native American solstice traditions, as well as traditions in Pakistan, India and Peru.

The UO Museum of Natural History and Museum Store is normally open six days a week, from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is free for exhibits but charges may apply for special events and guided tours. Visitor contributions are encouraged.

The museum will close for the holidays at 5 p.m. Dec. 23 when the fall exhibit, "They Sacrificed for Our Survival: The Indian Boarding School Experience," ends its three-month visit. The museum’s permanent exhibits and the Museum Store will reopen at noon on Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2000.

For information, browse http://natural-history.uoregon.edu, send e-mail to mnh@oregon.uoregon.edu or call (541) 346-3024.

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