Well, we’ve arrived at the winter solstice. If there was a popularity contest, I’m pretty sure that the winter solstice would win as the least popular solstice. The winter solstice occurs on the shortest day — and longest night — of the year. The good news is that after this day, we can look forward to the extra hours of sunlight coming in the new year.
We talk about the winter solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere, but the Southern Hemisphere has a winter solstice too.
For us here in the Northern Hemisphere, the Sun is closer during December, but the Earth’s tilt away from the Sun results in less direct sunlight and that causes colder temperatures. The same thing happens in the Southern Hemisphere, but not in December…. our winter solstice occurs around December 21. The Southern Hemisphere celebrates the winter solstice around June 21.
I’ve mention this before, but the winter solstice is actually just one brief moment when the Sun in exactly over the Tropic of Capricorn. But the event is marked by a whole day on our calendars.
Astronomers consider the winter solstice to be the first day of winter, but meteorologists consider December 1st to be the first day of winter.
The likelihood of seeing a full Moon on the night of the winter solstice is pretty slim. Since 1793, a full Moon has occurred on the winter solstice only 10 times. The last time it happened was in 2010. The next full Moon on a winter solstice won’t be until 2094.
A lot of our Christmas traditions can be directly traced to winter solstice celebrations.
The word “solstice” originated from the Latin solstitium, meaning “point at which the Sun stands still.” Early on, everyone figured that everything revolved around the Earth — including the Sun. If you’re a student of history, you know that the astronomer Nicholas Copernicus figured out that everyone was wrong.
So we’ve arrived at the winter solstice — with its oppressive darkness — but — the promise of brighter times ahead.
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