The days shorten as the sun moves toward the Southern Horizon moving toward the Winter Solstice and lengthen as it moves northward again, reaching its zenith with the Summer Solstice. What does this mean? Since ancient times this event, which signals the start of winter, has been an important one in the cultural lives of many civilizations from the Maya and Incas in Central and South America to the Celts in Ireland and Scotland and the Scandinavian and Germanic peoples. Most ancient humans used astronomical events, like solstices and equinoxes, to determine agricultural practices, like planting crops, monitoring winter food stores, and mating livestock.
The cultural meaning of the Winter Solstice is as varied as the cultures present on our planet, but there are a great number of holidays, festivals, gatherings, rituals, and other celebrations held around this time of year. Some are even still practiced today: Christmas, Yule, Saturnalia, the Long Night, and the start of winter.
In some cultures, the Winter Solstice marked the last feast day before the lean times of winter ahead. It is also thought to have been viewed as the turnaround toward spring and summer, thus marking it as a day for celebration. In the summer months, the northern half of the Earth, where we live, tilts towards the Sun. This means we get more sunlight, making the days longer.
During the fall, the northern half tilts a little bit away from the Sun and the southern half faces a little more towards the Sun. That is why the days start to get shorter for us, but longer for the other half of the Earth. On December 21, the northern part of the Earth faces the Sun only a small amount.
Picture Earth as a round ball with a line drawn around the middle. When it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere. In summer the days are longer, while in winter they are shorter. On maps and globes, the Earth looks straight up and down, with the North Pole at the top and the South Pole at the bottom.
Actually, though, the Earth is tilted Instead, the axis is tilted slightly, at This tilt is always pointed in the same direction in space, toward Polaris the so-called North Star , even as the planet travels in a circle around the sun.
Depending on where you are on the planet, the difference in the length of the day from season to season can be larger or smaller. Higher latitudes are closer to the poles, while 0 degrees in latitude is the equator itself.
But as the Earth is a sphere, the higher latitudes near the poles are already curving away from the Sun and therefore receiving less sunlight every 24 hours. With an extra Equinoxes and solstices are not only key dates in the calendar but also in the journey of Earth around the Sun.
They are used to outline the transitional periods between the seasons — when winter changes to spring, summer to autumn, and so on. How long days and nights are will depend on the position of the Sun in the relation to the Earth. The equinox happens twice a year and marks the when the amount of day-time we get is equal to the amount of night time we get — the day is equal to the night.
This takes place when the sun is positioned right above the equator. It happens usually around the 20th of March, which is the spring equinox , and again around the 22nd of September, known as the autumn equinox.
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