The word ‘solstice’ comes from Latin, solstitium meaning ‘sun stand still’ and marks the point at which the sun is exactly above the Tropic of Capricorn. The actual moment will occur around 10.02am on Monday December 21st in The UK. It is also known as the shortest day or the longest night.
Why does this happen? The Earth’s tilt on its axis means the North Pole is pointing away from the Sun, resulting in cold weather in the northern hemisphere. For the southern hemisphere the South Pole is pointing towards the sun and therefore warm weather and ‘summertime’.
The length of day is just 7 hours and 50 minutes, comparing this to the longest day at the Summer Solstice, about 16 hours and 40 minutes, almost 9 hours shorter!
After the Winter Solstice, the days get longer, the nights shorter. It is a shift that nearly everyone notices. Within a month or so daylight will lengthen by almost 30 minutes.
As well as marking the shortest day of the year, the Winter Solstice marks the first day of winter in the astronomical calendar, whilst in the Meterological calendar, winter began on December 1st.
Meteorological and Astronomical Seasons: The seasons change because Earth is slightly tilted on its axis as it travels around the Sun. This means different points on Earth receive more or less sunlight at different times of year. If Earth were not tilted, the Sun would always appear to be directly above the Equator, the amount of light a given location receives would be fixed, and there would be no seasons. There also would be no need to mark equinoxes or solstices.
For Meteorologists to be able to accurately record climate data, it is important to have set dates. Therefore the year is split into 4 seasons containing 3 equal months:
Spring: March, April, May – starting on March 1st
Summer: June, July, August – starting on June 1st
Autumn: September, October, November – starting on September 1st
Winter: December, January, February – starting on December 1st
Solstice Celebrations. Catching the sunrise at Stonehenge. Thousands of visitors celebrate at Stonehenge during the summer and winter solstices. They gather at the prehistoric ancient site in Wiltshire to sing, dance and wait for the sun to rise. Stonhenge is known for its precise alignment with the sun’s movement and has been a sacred place of worship and celebration of solstices for thousands of years.
Amongst the many festivals that centre around the solstices and equinoxes, the Scandinavian festival of Jul, perhaps more familiar to us as Yule, has given us many of our most familiar Christmas traditions including the Christmas tree, the Yule log and the Christmas wreath. To find out more about Yule and Winter Solstice celebrations check out our Yule blog.