![]() ![]() Spiritually, these celebrations symbolize the opportunity for renewal. 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 longer days.Īncient peoples whose survival depended on a precise knowledge of seasonal cycles marked this first day of winter with elaborate ceremonies and celebrations. Winter solstice traditions and celebrations ![]() The summer solstice is when the sun’s rays are farthest north over the Tropic of Cancer, giving us our longest day and the official start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere. On those two days, everyone everywhere has a nearly equal length of day and night. The equinoxes, both spring and fall, occur when the sun’s rays are directly over the equator. What other seasonal transitions do we mark? ![]() 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. As the planet 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. What causes the winter solstice to even happen?īecause Earth is tilted on its rotational axis, we have changing seasons. It sits inside the Arctic Circle and won’t see a single ray of sunshine. But that’s downright generous compared with Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Residents of Nome, Alaska, will be even more sunlight deprived with just three hours and 54 minutes and 31 seconds of very weak daylight. and set at 3:12 p.m., resulting in less than six hours of anemic daylight. The difference is more stark in frigid Oslo, Norway, where the sun will rise at 9:18 a.m. Much higher in latitude, Paris still logs in a respectable eight hours and 14 minutes of daylight to enjoy a chilly stroll along the Seine. It’s pretty much a 12-hour day, give or take a few minutes, all year long there. People in balmy Singapore, just 137 kilometers or 85 miles north of the equator, barely notice the difference, with just nine fewer minutes of daylight than they have during the summer solstice. What places see and feel the effects of the winter solstice the most?ĭaylight decreases dramatically the closer you are to the North Pole on December 21. You might also try the conversion tools at, or. To check the timing where you live, the website EarthSky has a handy conversion table for your time zone. Because of time zone differences, the vast bulk of Asia will mark the winter solstice on Thursday, December 22. That’s almost six hours later than last year’s time.īelow are some examples of when 21:48 UTC will be for various local times in places around the world. If you want to be super-precise in your observations, the exact time of the 2022 winter solstice will be 21:48 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on Wednesday, according to and Farmers’ Almanac. The date that the solstice occurs 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 up to our calendar year. The solstice usually - but not always - takes place on December 21. There, the December solstice marks the longest day of the year - and the beginning of summer - in places such as Argentina, Madagascar, New Zealand and South Africa. The situation is the reverse in the Southern Hemisphere, where only about 10% of the world’s population lives. The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year and the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun appears at its most southerly position, directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn. The science and timing behind a winter solstice Then we’ll explore some ancient traditions and celebrations around the world. How this all works has fascinated people for thousands of years.įirst we’ll look at the science and precise timing behind the solstice. Winter solstice 2022, the shortest day of year and the official first day of winter, is on Wednesday, December 21 (well, for a decent chunk of the world anyway). (CNN) - For the past six months, the days have grown shorter and the nights have grown longer in the Northern Hemisphere. ![]()
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