Pink and green lights illuminated the courtyard of Somerset House on the night of the winter solstice. It was picturesque, like someone took it straight from a Christmas card and pasted it into reality. There was a majestic tree – tall and bright, decorated with glittering red and gold baubles. The sound of music, pop songs from the past decade and traditional Christmas carols, mixed with laughter in the air. And although skaters sometimes fell, they quickly picked themselves up again. I felt uplifted by the encouraging words that people told each other as they skated. As I was tying my skates, a mother told her daughter who was complaining that she did not want to skate, that she must try new things. Someone told the person next to them that skating will get easier the longer they are on the ice.
A song started to play. Starry, starry night (or ‘Vincent’), the Ellie Goulding version. As I skated, I realized that just a hundred metres away in the Courtauld Gallery, Vincent van Gogh’s self-portraits were hanging on the walls. The song about Van Gogh seemed to resonate even more with the knowledge that those paintings were not far away.
Even though it was the longest night of the year, it was not the darkest. All around there was the light of knowing that from tomorrow the days would start to get longer again.