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Winter Solstice

10 Facts About the Winter Solstice, the Shortest Day of the Year

BY Jane Rose - (Updated: December 6, 2019)

Amid the whirl of the holiday season, many are vaguely aware of the approach of the winter solstice, but how much do you really know about it? Whether you're a fan of winter or just wish it would go away, here are 10 things to note—or even celebrate—about the shortest day of the year.

1. The winter solstice HAPPENS ON DECEMBER 21/22 in 2019. The date of the winter solstice varies from year to year, and can fall anywhere between December 20 and December 23, with the 21st or 22nd being the most common dates. The reason for this is because the tropical year—the time it takes for the sun to return to the same spot relative to Earth—is different from the calendar year. The next solstice occurring on December 20 will not happen until 2080, and the next December 23 solstice will not occur until 2303.

2. The winter solstice hAPPENS AT A SPECIFIC, BRIEF MOMENT. Not only does the solstice occur on a specific day, but it also occurs at a specific time of day, corresponding to the instant the North Pole is aimed furthest away from the sun on the 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth's axis. This is also the time when the sun shines directly over the Tropic of Capricorn. In 2019, this moment occurs at 4:19 a.m. UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) on December 22. For those on Eastern Standard Time, the solstice will occur at 11:19 p.m. on December 21. And regardless of where you live, the solstice happens at the same moment for everyone on the planet.

3. The winter solstice mARKS THE LONGEST NIGHT AND SHORTEST DAY OF THE YEAR FOR THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE. As most are keenly aware, daylight hours grow shorter and shorter as the winter solstice approaches, and begin to slowly lengthen afterward. It's no wonder that the day of the solstice is referred to in some cultures as the "shortest day of the year" or "extreme of winter." New York City will experience 9 hours and 15 minutes of sunlight, compared to 15 hours and 5 minutes on the summer solstice. Helsinki, Finland, will get 5 hours and 49 minutes of light. Barrow, Alaska, will not have a sunrise at all (and hasn't since mid-November; its next sunrise will be on January 22), while the North Pole has had no sunrise since October. The South Pole, though, will be basking in the glow of the midnight sun, which won't set until March.

4. ANCIENT CULTURES VIEWED THE WINTER SOLSTICE AS A TIME OF DEATH AND REBIRTH. The seeming death of the light and very real threat of starvation over the winter months would have weighed heavily on early societies, who held varied solstice celebrations and rites meant to herald the return of the sun and hope for new life. Scandinavian and Germanic pagans lit fires and may have burned Yule logs as a symbolic means of welcoming back the light. Cattle and other animals were slaughtered around midwinter, followed by feasting on what was the last fresh meat for several months. The modern Druidic celebration Alban Arthan reveres the death of the Old Sun and birth of the New Sun.

5. THE shortest DAY of the year MARKS THE DISCOVERY OF NEW AND STRANGE WORLDS. The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth on December 21, 1620, to found a society that would allow them to worship freely. On the same day in 1898, Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium, ushering in an atomic age. And on December 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 spacecraft launched, becoming the first manned moon mission.

6. THE WORD SOLSTICE TRANSLATES ROUGHLY TO "SUN STANDS STILL." Solstice derives from the Latin scientific term solstitium, containing sol, which means "sun," and the past participle stem of sistere, meaning "to make stand." This comes from the fact that the sun’s position in the sky relative to the horizon at noon, which increases and decreases throughout the year, appears to pause in the days surrounding the solstice. In modern times, we view the phenomenon of the solstice from the position of space, and of the Earth relative to the sun. Earlier people, however, were thinking about the sun's trajectory, how long it stayed in the sky and what sort of light it cast.

7. STONEHENGE IS ALIGNED TO THE SUNSET ON the WINTER SOLSTICE. The primary axis of the megalithic monument is oriented to the setting sun, while Newgrange, another structure built around the same time as Stonehenge, lines up with the winter solstice sunrise. Some have theorized that the position of the sun was of religious significance to the people who built Stonehenge, while other theories hold that the monument is constructed along natural features that happen to align with it. The purpose of Stonehenge is still subject to debate, but its importance on the winter solstice continues into the modern era, as thousands of hippies, pagans, and other types of enthusiasts gather there every year to celebrate the occasion.

8. ANCIENT ROMANS CELEBRATED REVERSALS AT THE MIDWINTER FESTIVAL OF SATURNALIA. The holiday, which began as a festival to honor the agricultural god Saturn, was held to commemorate the dedication of his temple in 497 BCE. It quickly became a time of widespread revelry and debauchery in which societal roles were overturned, with masters serving their slaves and servants being allowed to insult their masters. Mask-wearing and play-acting were also part of Saturnalia's reversals, with each household electing a King of Misrule. Saturnalia was gradually replaced by Christmas throughout the Roman Empire, but many of its customs survive as Christmas traditions.

9. SOME TRADITIONS HOLD THAT DARK SPIRITS WALK THE EARTH ON THE WINTER SOLSTICE. The Iranian festival of Yalda is celebrated on the longest night of the year. In pre-Islamic times, it heralded the birth of Mithra, the ancient sun god, and his triumph over darkness. Zoroastrian lore holds that evil spirits wander the Earth and the forces of the destructive spirit Ahriman are strongest on this long night. People are encouraged to stay up most of the night in the company of one another, eating, talking, and sharing poetry and stories, in order to avoid any brushes with dark entities. Beliefs about the presence of evil on the longest night are also echoed in Celtic and Germanic folklore.

10. SOME THOUGHT THE WORLD WOULD END ON THE 2012 WINTER SOLSTICE. December 21, 2012 corresponds to the date 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar used by the ancient Maya, marking the end of a 5126-year cycle. Some people feared this juncture would bring about the end of the world or some other cataclysmic event. Others took a more New Age-y view (literally) and believed it heralded the birth of a new era of deep transformation for Earth and its inhabitants. In the end, neither of these things appeared to occur, leaving the world to turn through winter solstices indefinitely, or at least as long as the sun lasts.

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/72659/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-winter-solstice

#Winter Solstice

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rayburnlady · 5 years

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Stonehenge, England

Today is a special day in the Northern Hemisphere, because it is the shortest day of the year—the winter solstice. The hours of daylight will gradually increase until we reach the summer solstice, or first day of summer in June which is the longest day of the year.

My husband and I had the opportunity to travel to England and visit the great stone circle of Stonehenge, and also to Ireland for a visit to the ancient passage tomb of Newgrange. Both sites are temples and calendars built in ancient times for pagan worship and ceremonies. They also mark the the winter solstice or rebirth of the sun.

Newgrange, Ireland

Today is also special because we will experience a Cold Moon and meteor shower. The following article explains all three phenomenon. The article was taken from WSLS Newschannel 10 of Roanoke, Virginia web site.

(CNN) – For six months now, the days have grown shorter and the nights have grown longer in the Northern Hemisphere — but that’s about to reverse itself.

Winter solstice, the shortest day of 2018, is Friday, December 21.

The solstice this year will be extra special because it will be followed the next day by a full moon known as the Cold Moon, and you might be able to see a meteor shower to boot.

First, CNN meteorologists Dave Hennen, Judson Jones and Brandon Miller help us understand the science behind the solstice.

Then we’ll take a closer look at that special moon. Finally, we’ll explore some traditions and celebrations around the world that could inspire a travel adventure:

The science behind a winter solstice

The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun appears at its most southerly position, directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn. It marks the longest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere.

When exactly does it occur?

The solstice usually takes place on December 21. The time that the solstice occurs and the day itself can shift because the solar year (the time it takes for the sun to reappear in the same spot as seen from Earth) doesn’t exactly match our calendar year.

If you want to be super-precise in your observations, the exact time of the 2018 winter solstice will be 22:23 Universal Time. That would be 5:23 p.m. ET (for parts of Canada, the United States and Latin America). The website EarthSky has a handy conversion website for your time zone. You might also try to the conversion chart at WorldTimeBuddy.

What causes the winter solstice to even happen?

Because the Earth is tilted on its rotational axis, we experience seasons here on Earth. As the Earth moves around the sun, each hemisphere experiences winter when it’s tilted away from the sun and summer when it’s tilted toward the sun.

Wait. Why is the Earth tilted?

Scientists are not entirely sure how this occurred, but they think that billions of years ago, as the solar system was taking shape, the Earth was subject to violent collisions that caused the axis to tilt.

What other seasonal transitions do we mark?

The equinoxes, both spring and fall, mark when the sun’s rays are directly over the equator, where we have equal length of day and night. The summer solstice is when the sun’s rays are farthest north over the Tropic of Cancer, giving us our longest day and summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

So what’s going on with this full moon?

Our last full moon of the year will come less than a day after the solstice. Again, for those of you who love precision, it will occur on Saturday, December 22, at 17:49 Universal Time (that’s 12:49 p.m. ET), EarthSky says.

However, when you’re looking out into a clear sky on Friday night, the moon will appear full to you — and could be so bright that people with pretty good eyesight could read by it.

Over many centuries, this moon has been called several names: Cold Moon, Cold Full Moon, Long Night Moon(by some Native American tribes) or the Moon Before Yule (from the Anglo-Saxon lunar calendar).

If you’re wondering how special this Cold Moon is so close to the solstice, it will be 2029 before it happens again. So it’s not a once-in-a-lifetime event, but still, you don’t see this too often.

Now what about that meteor shower?

The annual Ursids meteor shower is expected to peak a day or two after the solstice. You might be able to see up to 10 “shooting stars” per hour depending on your location.

The website In the Sky has a great feature that helps you figure out where to watch and how many meteors you might see. For instance, people in South Florida might expect just three per hour while people in Juneau, Alaska, might expect seven per hour.

One caveat: That Cold Moon will be so bright that it could outshine some of the meteors as they streak in, making them harder to spot.

Winter solstice traditions and celebrations

It’s no surprise many cultures and religions celebrate a holiday — whether it be Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or pagan festivals — that coincides with the return of the sun and longer days to come.

Ancient peoples whose survival depended on a precise knowledge of seasonal cycles marked this first day of winter with elaborate ceremonies and celebrations. Spiritually, these celebrations symbolize the opportunity for renewal, a casting off of old habits and negative feelings and an embracing of hope amid darkness as the days once again begin to grow longer.

Many of the ancient symbols and ceremonies of the solstice live on today. Here are five extraordinary places to experience something magical during winter’s relentlessly long night:

UNITED KINGDOM: Cornwall and Stonehenge

Better known for pirates than the solstice, the town of Penzance on the southwest coast of England has revived a delightful array of Cornish solstice events leading up to December 21. The Montol Festival is a fun mix of pagan customs and more recent Christmas traditions that were once common throughout Cornwall.

Early in the week, join in caroling and other events. On the solstice, referred to here as Montol Eve, get your dancing card ready for the Guise, a community dance in which people dress in masks and other “topsy-turvy” disguises based on a 19th-century tradition of the rich dressing in rags while poorer citizens effected a “mock posh” look.

You can also don your finery for torchlit processions. The merrymaking only continues when the revelers disperse to pubs around town.

With some planning, it’s also possible to incorporate a trip to Stonehenge, the UK’s most famous site for solstice celebrations. On the winter solstice, visitors have the rare opportunity to enter the towering, mysterious stone circle for a sunrise ceremony run by local pagan and druid groups.

The trip from Penzance to Stonehenge takes less than four hours by car, making it entirely feasible to spend the night of December 20 in Salisbury, the nearest town to Stonehenge, and rise before dawn for the ceremony among the stones.

The Winter Solstice Stonehenge, England Today is a special day in the Northern Hemisphere, because it is the shortest day of the year—the winter solstice.

#adventure #ceremonies #England #festivals #Ireland #temple #travel

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decodinghinduism · 6 years

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[This article was originally written for the Atheists United radio program that was broadcast on KPFK-FM in Los Angeles. Later it was adapted to an article that appeared in the Fall 1985 issue of Free Inquiry magazine.]

Every December we experience the greatest media blitz of falsehood. Newspapers and broadcasters repeat the deplorable “commercialization” of Christmas. So we seem to have lost the true meaning of Christmas and perverted it into a pagan holiday,”

We have been told false story hundreds of times that Christmas is a celebration of the beginning of Christianity and that it all started on the evening of December 24, exactly one thousand, nine hundred and eighty-five years ago, in little town of Bethlehem – and everything will be slanted to convey the impression that Eyewitness News was there to cover it. All falsehood.

The winter solstice (or hibernal solstice), also known as midwinter, is an astronomical phenomenon marking the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere this is the December solstice and in the Southern Hemisphere this is the June solstice.

The axial tilt of Earth and gyroscopic effects of its daily rotation mean that the two opposite points in the sky to which the Earth’s axis of rotation points (axial precession) change very slowly (at the current rate it would take just under 26,000 years to make a complete circle). As the Earth follows its orbit around the Sun, the polar hemisphere that faced away from the Sun, experiencing winter, will, in half a year, face towards the Sun and experience summer. This is because the two hemispheres face opposite directions along Earth’s axis, and so as one polar hemisphere experiences winter, the other experiences summer.

More evident from high latitudes, a hemisphere’s winter solstice occurs on the day with the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, when the sun’s daily maximum elevation in the sky is at its lowest.[1] Although the winter solstice itself lasts only a moment in time, the term sometimes refers to the day on which it occurs. Other names are “midwinter”, the “extreme of winter” (Dongzhi), or the “shortest day”. In some cultures it is seen as the middle of winter, while in others it is seen as the beginning of winter.[2] In meteorology, winter in the Northern Hemisphere spans the entire period of December through February. The seasonal significance of the winter solstice is in the reversal of the gradual lengthening of nights and shortening hours of daylight during the day. The earliest sunset and latest sunrise dates differ from winter solstice, however, and these depend on latitude, due to the variation in the solar day throughout the year caused by the Earth’s elliptical orbit (see earliest and latest sunrise and sunset). Ancient people were very dependent on the seasons. That is why all cultures in all parts of the world have held their major religious festivals on these four occasions.

In the days of the Roman republic, the calendar was numbered from the founding of Rome – which, according to the present calendar, would be 753 B.C.E. And March 15, called the Ides of March, was designated as New Year’s Day. However, this was a lunar calendar rather than a solar calendar, so the months rotated throughout the year. One year March 15 might be in the summer, and a few years later it would be in the winter.

Greece, and all of northern Europe, operated on a solar calendar, with the new year starting on the winter solstice. When the Romans invaded Greece in the fifth century B.C.E., they realized the advantages of a solar calendar. In 153 B.C.E., New Year’s Day was moved to January first, since Janus was the two-faced god of doorways and new beginnings.

Finally, in 46 B.C.E., Julius Caesar switched from a lunar to a solar calendar. He divided the year into 365 and one-quarter days, with twelve “moons,” or months, all of which had either 30 or 31 days, except February, which had 28 – and 29 every fourth year. New Year’s Day was still on January first.

The major festival of the year in ancient Rome was called the “Saturnalia,” and it centered on the winter solstice. When the Julian calendar was first devised, the solstice fell on December 25. But the Julian calendar had an error of eleven minutes. The year is actually 365 days, 6 hours, 11 minutes and a few seconds. So by the third century C.E. the solstice had crept backwards to approximately December 23.

At this time, the emperor Aurelian established an official holiday called “Sol Invicti” – meaning unconquered sun, in honor of the Syrian sun god “Sol,” and also in honor of himself, since the emperors were regarded as the divine incarnation of Apollo. This holiday was held on December 24 and 25. And it more or less established December 25 as the official solstice. All other religions that worshipped sun gods also accepted December 25 as a fixed date for their celebrations. And the major festivals of the Egyptian earth-mother Isis were held on December 25, January 6, and March 5.

The earliest Christians assumed that Christ was born and was resurrected on the same day – March 25 – which was assumed to be the vernal equinox. Later Christians celebrated the birth of Christ on January 6, along with the festival of Isis. By the fourth century, many Christians were referring to December 25 as the day of the “unconquered son” – in defiance of the emperor, and January 6 was then called “Epiphany,” when either the magi were supposed to have visited or Christ was baptized, or maybe both.

In 325 C.E., many churches did not want to be associated with the pagan religions, and to this day the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates the birth of Christ on January 7 – the day after Epiphany.

In the fourth century, Emperor Constantine established our seven-day week – based on Jewish tradition.

Throughout the early Middle Ages, most of Europe disregarded Roman practices and continued to start the year with the equinox – March 25. England, however, retained the practice of starting the year on the solstice – December 25.

By 1582, the eleven-minute error in the Julian calendar had thrown the year ten days out of sync with the sun, which was very upsetting to the Catholic Church, since the calendar determined all their feast days. At that time, the pope was the most powerful person in the world. So Pope Gregory had the authority to establish his “Gregorian” calendar. He deleted ten days from that year, which pushed the solstice back to December 22, where it had been when the Catholic Church was founded in 325. But by then, the connections with Christmas had long since been forgotten, so it remained on December 25. Then Gregory modified the rule about how often leap-year must occur so the calendar wouldn’t drift out of sync again. The Gregorian calendar also retained the Italian tradition of January first as New Year’s Day. England and America finally accepted the Gregorian calendar in 1752.

“Santa Claus” is a contraction of “St. Nicholas,” who was archbishop of the sea-port of Myra, in Asia Minor, during the time of the Nicene Council. He died on December 6, 326. Since he was bishop of a seaport, he became the patron saint of sailors – and therefore of all travelers, most of whom were merchants. Later he was adopted as the favorite saint of the Russian Orthodox Church and, eventually, of fishermen as far away as Lapland and the Arctic Ocean.

Real story of Christmas day

wikipedia

Falsehood of Christmas celebration

Solar Solstice was renamed as Christmas day Every December we experience the greatest media blitz of falsehood. Newspapers and broadcasters repeat the deplorable "commercialization" of Christmas.

#BIBLE #CATHOLIC #CHRISTIANITY #CHRISTMAS #pegans and christmas #solar solstice and falsehood of christmas #solar solstice was christmas day

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