Welcome to the “real” start of summer….. today is the longest day of the year — well, actually it’s the day with the longest period of daylight. But anyhow, today is the summer solstice of 2023. The solstice happens at the exact same time of all of us — everywhere on Earth — only our clocks are different. Here in West Virginia, the solstice occurs at 10:58 a.m. (EDT.)
At the solstice, the Sun reaches it’s northernmost position, reaching the Tropic of Cancer and standing still before reversing direction and starts moving south again.
Today may be the “longest day,” but it’s not the latest sunset — or the earliest sunrise. The earliest sunrises happen before the summer solstice and the latest sunsets occur after the summer solstice.
In case you’re interested, in India, the summer solstice ends the six-month period when spiritual growth is supposedly the easiest….
Today, the Sun rises farthest left on the horizon and sets farthest right. So today sunlight strikes places on your house that don’t get illuminated at any other time.
But I guess the important thing is that today is “the start of summer,” or if you happen to be somewhere like Australia, “the start of winter.”
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