First Official Day of Winter!

The winter solstice can happen on Dec. 20, Dec. 21, Dec. 22 or Dec. 23.

Official or unofficial, it is both the start of the cold darkness and of new beginnings, as the spiritual center the Turtle Lodge, on Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba, Canada, notes in its invite to this year’s annual solstice ceremony. This astronomical event marks the beginning of winter for those living above the equator. It’s because of that tilt that we have our four seasons.

Each hemisphere is cooler than the other for half of every year, when the Earth’s angle positions it on the opposite part than the direction of the sun. At the same time the South Pole is pointed away from the Sun and so the Southern Hemisphere experiences winter.

Brumalia is an ancient Roman festival that marks the shortest day of the year.

As a result, when the earth is at a certain place in its orbit, the northern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun and experiences summer.

Matt Hinkin said there will be longer and longer days until the summer solstice, which is the first day of summer and also the longest day of the year.

Because it marked the turnaround after which the days lengthen, cultures around the world have celebrated the Winter Solstice as a time of rebirth.

“This delay is referred to as the “seasonal lag”, and ranges anywhere from a few weeks to more than two months depending on the local environment and climate”.

The term “solstice” derives from the Latin word “solstitium”, meaning “Sun standing still”. We do not know which solstice was more important to the users of Stonehenge, but several pieces of evidence suggest that midwinter was very important.

Wait, the Christmas tree was originally a winter solstice tree? The rock formation was constructed in such a way as to be aligned on a sight-line that points to the sunset during the winter solstice.

As this winter solstice arrives, we asked CNN senior meteorologist Dave Hennen to help us understand what’s behind this natural phenomenon. In the Southern Hemisphere, the opposite is true – today marks the longest day and shortest night of the year. That was based on a reading of the end date of the Mayans’ 5,126-year-long Mesoamerica Long Count Calendar, which corresponded to certain astronomical events, including the winter solstice.

They, therefore, celebrated the day with elaborate ceremonies and even built special structures. That’s when we see our average temperatures start to increase.