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In the last six months, the days have gotten shorter and the nights longer in the northern hemisphere. But that is about to be reversed.
The 2021 winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and the first official day of winter, is Tuesday, December 21. How all this works has fascinated people for thousands of years.
First, let's look at the science and exact timing behind the solstice. We then explore some ancient traditions and celebrations around the world.
The science and time behind a winter solstice
The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun appears in its southernmost position, just over the Tropic of Capricorn.
In the southern hemisphere, the situation is reversed. There, the December solstice marks the longest day of the year and the beginning of summer in countries like Australia, Chile and South Africa.
These three images from NOAA's GOES East (GOES-16) satellite show us what Earth looks like from space around the winter solstice. The images were taken about 24 hours before the 2018 winter solstice. You can see the northern hemisphere shrouded in even more darkness.
When does it happen exactly?
The solstice usually, but not always, occurs on December 21. The time when the solstice occurs changes each year because the solar year (the time it takes for the sun to reappear in the same place as seen from Earth) does not correspond exactly to our calendar year.
If you want to be super precise in your observations (and who doesn't?), the exact time of the winter solstice will be 2021.15:59 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on Tuesday, according to EarthSky.org and Farmers' Almanac. That's almost six hours later than last year.
The sun sets over Ocean Beach in San Francisco on the winter solstice of 2020.
Here are some examples of when 15:59 UTC will be for different local times in places around the world. Due to time zone differences, the solstice technically falls on Wednesday in parts of East Asia.
• Tokio:6:48 a.m. m. Thursday
• Hanoi, Vietnam:4:48 a.m. m. Thursday
• New Delhi:3:18 a.m. Thursday
• Istanbul:12:48 Thursday
• Jerusalem:23:48 Wednesday
• Copenhagen, Denmark:10:48 p.m. Wednesday
• Charlotte, North Carolina: 4:48 p.m. Wednesday
• Winnipeg, Manitoba:3:48 p.m. Wednesday
• San Francisco:1:48 p.m. Wednesday
• Sheltered Bay:11:48 Wednesday
To check the time of where you live, the website has EarthSkya handy conversion table for your time zone. You can also try the conversion tools belowhorayfecha.com,Zeitzonenumrechner.comoWorldTimeServer.com.
Where do you see and feel the effects of the winter solstice the most?
Daylight dramatically decreases as you get closer to the North Pole on December 21.
people in mildSingapore, just 137 kilometers or 85 miles north of the equator, barely notice the difference, with only nine minutes less daylight than during the summer solstice.
The illuminated Pont Alexandre III crosses the Seine and adds to the magic of Paris in winter.
much higher in latitude,Madrid Spain, still logs a respectable nine hours and 17 minutes of daylight during the winter solstice.
The difference is stronger in coldHelsinki, Finland, where the sun rises at 9:23 a.m. m. and sets at 3:12 p.m. m., resulting in less than six hours of anemic daylight. It's 13 hours and seven minutes less daylight than these Finns during the summer solstice in June.
inhabitant ofNomen, Alaska, it will be deprived of even more sunlight with just three hours, 54 minutes, and 31 seconds of very weak daylight on Tuesday. But that's downright generous compared toPrudhoe Bay, Alaska. You are inside the Arctic Circle and you will not see a single ray of sun.
What causes the winter solstice to occur in the first place?
Because our planet is tilted on its axis of rotation, we experience seasons here on Earth. As the planet moves around the sun, each hemisphere experiences winter when it is tilted away from the sun and summer when it is tilted toward the sun.
Wait. Why is the earth tilted?
Scientists aren't exactly sure how this happened, but they believe that billions of years ago, as the solar system was taking shape, Earth was subjected to violent collisions that caused its axis to tilt.
What other seasonal transitions do we mark?
The equinoxes, in both spring and fall, occur when the sun's rays are directly over the equator. On these two days, day and night are the same length for everyone. The summer solstice is when the sun's rays are furthest north over the Tropic of Cancer, giving us our longest day and the official start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere.
Winter Solstice Traditions and Celebrations
A look at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree for 2022. Many Christmas traditions have their roots in pagan celebrations.
It's no surprise that many cultures and religions celebrate a holiday, whether it's Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or pagan festivals, that coincides with the return of longer days.
Ancient peoples, whose survival depended on a precise knowledge of seasonal cycles, celebrated this first day of winter with elaborate ceremonies and celebrations. Spiritually, these celebrations symbolize the opportunity for renewal, shedding bad habits and negative feelings, and embracing hope in the midst of darkness as the days grow longer.
"Christmas borrowed many of its customs and likely its calendar date from the pagan Roman holidays of Saturnalia and Kalends," Maria Kennedy, an assistant professor in Rutgers University's Department of American Studies, told CNN Travel in an email. electronic.
Saturnalia began on December 17 and calendar it began Jan. 1, said Kennedy, who specializes in Christmas studies.
Citing academic research, Kennedy said the early founders of the Christian church condemned the practices of these holidays, but their popularity endured. The Christian celebration of Christmas eventually came to be celebrated around the same time on the calendar, although no specific date for Jesus' birth is given in the Gospels.
many ancient symbols and winter solstice ceremonies are still alive or have been incorporated into more recent traditions. These are only some of them:
Scotland Arthan
Newgrange:The Newgrange Passage Tomb in Ireland is one of the earliest and greatest masterpieces of solar alignment, built 500 years before the Pyramids of Giza and 1,000 years before Stonehenge.
Winter Solstice:Every year, between December 19 and 23, hundreds gather at dawn at this prehistoric tomb. A lucky few will have won the lottery: in 2016, only one in 545 applicants got the chance.
First light of dawn:Shortly before 9 a.m. m., light falls through the “ceiling box” above the entrance to the tomb, creeps down the corridor, and finally floods the innermost chamber with light.
Megalithic art:Newgrange is part of the Brú na Bóinne World Heritage Site. UNESCO has described it as "the largest and most important concentration of prehistoric megalithic art in Europe."
burial chamber:"The remains you find in passage graves are usually cremated," says Clare Tuffy, manager of the Brú na Bóinne Visitor Center. "But you can tell that the remains are of adults and children, men and women. We imagine they were families of very high status, or families that might have had a direct connection to the ancestors who founded the Boyne Valley." .
Depth:At Brú na Bóinne there are three main funerary mounds - Newgrange, Knowth and Dowth - and around 40 side passage funerary mounds.
Knowledge:The Newgrange site is full of purely prehistoric artefacts, but the Knowth site was in constant use until the Anglo-Norman period.
Gavrinis, Francia:Communal passage graves spread throughout Western Europe in the Neolithic period. Current examples include Gavrinis in France (pictured), Maeshowe in Scotland, and Bryn Celli Ddu in Wales.
Hills of Tara:The Hill of Tara archaeological complex, once the seat of the High Kings of Ireland and used from the Neolithic to the 12th century, is a short drive away on the River Boyne and can be combined with a day trip to Brú na Bóinne.
Old East of Ireland:Brú na Bóinne is a major landmark in what the country's tourism board calls Ireland's Old East. Other highlights include the 6th century monastic site of Glendalough south of Dublin in County Wicklow.
Klosterboice:Just north of the River Boyne is the early Christian settlement of Monasterboice, home to the oldest known Celtic cross.
Old connection:"There are very few experiences that you can share with your ancestors for five millennia," says Tuffi. "It's very moving and inspiring."
Newgrange: Ireland's Amazing Feat of Stone Age Engineering
In Welsh, "Alban Arthan" means "winter light" aloud.the peasant almanac. It might be humanity's oldest seasonal festival. As part of druidic traditions, the winter solstice is considered a time of death and rebirth.
Newgrange, a prehistoric monumentaround 3200 B.C. Built in Ireland, it is associated with the Alban Arthan Festival.
Saturnalia
In ancient Rome, Saturnalia began on December 17 and lasted for seven days. It honored Saturn, the Roman god of agriculture. People enjoyed the carnival festivities.modern carnival celebrationsand even delayed their war. Saturnalia continued into the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.
People enjoyed the carnival festivities.modern carnival celebrationsand even delayed their war. Slaves were granted temporary freedoms and moral restrictions were relaxed. Saturnalia continued into the 3rd and 4th centuries AD.
Dongzhi
It's not just ancient Europeans who celebrated the annual occasion. The Dongzhi Winter Solstice Festival has its roots in ancient Chinese culture. Roughly translated, the name means "winter's end".
They thought this was the culmination of yin (from Chinese medicine theory). Yin represents darkness, cold and stillness, that is, the longest day of winter.Dongzhi marca el yang de regresso– and the slow rise of light and heat. Dumplings are often eaten to celebrate in some East Asian cultures.
Celebrating in the age of Covid
Traditionally, many places around the world hold festivals in honor of the winter solstice. But due to the ongoing pandemic, now extending into a second winter solstice, events may again be canceled or modified to allow for a safe and socially distanced occasion.
Montol Fest
Better known for pirates than the solstice, the city of Penzance on England's southwest coast has revived the delicious tradition of a Cornish procession. Shutdown in 2020, restarted in 2021. Event organizers are asking people to get tested before attending.according to the festival's Facebook page.
On the winter solstice, a choir sings at Stonehenge.
Stonehenge
The most famous location for solstice celebrations in Britain isStonehenge. On the winter solstice, visitors have traditionally been given the opportunity to enter the imposing and mysterious stone circle for a dawn ceremony performed by local pagan groups and druids.
HeEnglish Heritage Societysays the 2022 celebration will take place on Thursday, December 22. It will be broadcast on your live stream.canal de youtube.
Laternenfest
In Vancouver, CanadaWinter Solstice Lantern Festivalis a brilliant celebration of solstice traditions from around the world. Traditionally, the Secret Lantern Society brings together a wide spectrum of music, dance, food, and spectacular lantern parades.
CNN's Katia Hetter and Autumn Spange contributed to this article.
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