Today is the first day of winter. I’m not crazy about winter, but one good thing about it is that starting today, the days are getting longer.
Yesterday was the winter solstice — the shortest day of the year, when the sun appears at its most southerly position. This is true in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere, yesterday marked the longest day of the year.
The solstice usually (but not always) takes place on December 21. The time that the solstice occurs shifts every year because the time it takes for the sun to reappear in the same spot as seen from earth (the solar year) doesn’t exactly match up with our calendar year.
So why does the solstice even happen? The reason we experience seasons is because the Earth is tilted on its rotational axis. 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.
As to why the Earth is tilted, no one really knows for sure, but scientists think that billions of years ago, the Earth was subject to violent collisions that caused the axis to tilt.
Solstice celebrations have traditionally been held around the world…. last year, and maybe this year, a lot of the celebrations have been scaled back, or completely canceled because of the Covid pandemic.
One of the most famous solstice celebrations is at Stonehenge in the UK. During the winter solstice, visitors have the opportunity to enter the mysterious stone circle for a sunrise ceremony run by local pagan and druid groups. The gathering was canceled last year but scheduled to be held this year. That could change due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant.
If you don’t want to go to a solstice celebration, try this — stand outside at noon and look at your shadow (assuming the sun is shining.) It’s the longest shadow that you’ll cast all year. I realize that it’s a little late to try it this year — and — there was no sun yesterday, so remember it for next year. In the meantime, go outside at noon on the day of the summer solstice and you’ll see almost no shadow.
Anyhow, winter is here — for me, that’s the bad news; the good news is that the days are getting longer. And soon…. it’ll be spring. Bill Veeck once said, “There are only two seasons — winter and baseball.”
— 30 —