47 Fun Facts About Winter Solstice

The winter solstice is the day with what?

It also has the longest night of the year for that hemisphere.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice falls on or about which date?

December 21 or 22: the Northern Hemisphere's winter solstice almost always falls on one of those dates, drifting slightly year to year as leap years catch the calendar up with Earth's orbit.

Astronomically, the winter solstice is the moment one of Earth's poles reaches its maximum tilt in which direction relative to the Sun?

Away from the Sun is the losing pole's direction; the other pole is tilted toward it and has its summer solstice at that same instant.

What actually causes the seasons on our planet?

The tilt of its axis, about 23.4 degrees, is what drives the seasons; Earth is actually closest to the Sun in early January.

Earth's axis is tilted by roughly how many degrees?

23.4 degrees is Earth's current obliquity, and that lean alone, not distance from the Sun, is what makes winter and summer.

Surprisingly, Earth is actually closest to the Sun in which month?

January: Earth reaches perihelion, its closest point to the Sun, around January 3 each year, so distance cannot be what makes the Northern Hemisphere's winter.

Stonehenge, in England, is aligned to the sunset on which day?

It is aligned to the summer solstice sunrise in the other direction.

The Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland is older than Stonehenge and older than what else?

The Egyptian pyramids: Newgrange was built around 3200 BC, centuries before the Great Pyramid of Giza, whereas Gobekli Tepe, Catalhoyuk and Lascaux are all thousands of years older than Newgrange.

At Newgrange, the winter solstice sunrise shines into the inner chamber through what feature?

A roofbox above the entrance: at winter solstice sunrise, light passes through this opening above the doorway and travels about 19 metres up the passage to light the chamber for roughly 17 minutes.

Which Germanic midwinter festival, observed by heathen peoples around the solstice, was later merged with Christmas?

Yule was the heathen Germanic festival that Christmas absorbed; the old texts describe two Yule-months wrapped around the solstice.

Which Roman midwinter festival began on 17 December with feasting and gift-giving?

Saturnalia, honouring the god Saturn, opened on 17 December and ran for up to a week of feasting, gambling and gift-giving before the solstice.

What is the name of China's traditional winter-solstice festival?

The name means the extreme, or summit, of winter.

At the Chinese winter festival, families make and eat balls of glutinous rice called what?

The round shape symbolises reunion.

Iran's ancient winter-solstice celebration, Yalda, marks what?

The longest, darkest night: Shab-e Yalda falls on the night of the winter solstice, and families stay up until dawn eating, talking and sharing poetry to see the darkness through.

Which two red fruits are especially significant at Yalda Night?

Pomegranates and watermelons: both red fruits are set out on Yalda Night, their colour standing for the crimson of dawn and the glow of life, beside nuts and dried fruit.

The Soyal ceremony is the winter-solstice ritual of which Native American peoples?

It opens the sacred underground kiva chambers and the Kachina season.

The Inca sun festival Inti Raymi was centred on which city?

Cusco, the Inca capital, hosted Inti Raymi, the festival of the sun god Inti; a modern re-enactment has been staged at Sacsayhuaman above the city since 1944.

Which Japanese sun goddess hid in a cave, plunging the world into darkness?

Amaterasu: in the Kojiki the sun goddess shut herself in the Heavenly Rock Cave after her brother Susanoo's rampage, and the gods lured her out with a mirror and dancing, restoring light.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the winter solstice falls in which month?

The seasons are reversed from the Northern Hemisphere.

In Sweden, which saint is honoured with candle-crowned processions on 13 December?

Saint Lucia: Swedish Luciadagen on 13 December features a girl in a white gown and a crown of candles; under the old Julian calendar the date fell within days of the winter solstice.

The name 'Jolnir', or 'Yule man', is also a name for which Norse god?

Odin: Jolnir, 'the Yule one', is one of the many names of Odin recorded in Old Norse poetry, tying the god to the midwinter feast.

The day of the year with the most daylight is known as what?

The summer solstice is the day with the most daylight, when a hemisphere's pole leans closest to the Sun; at that same instant the opposite hemisphere has its winter solstice.

In the far north or south, what is it called when the Sun stays below the horizon for more than 24 hours?

Polar night is the winter mirror of the midnight sun: one is a Sun that will not rise for over a day, the other a Sun that will not set.

The midnight sun, when the Sun never sets, happens north of which line?

The Arctic Circle, at about 66.5 degrees north, is the line beyond which the Sun stays above the horizon for at least one full day each summer; the Antarctic Circle mirrors it.

Macrobius noted that at the solstice the Egyptians brought an idol of what out of a shrine?

He wrote that the Sun appears small on the shortest day.

Which Mississippian site in Illinois had a 'Woodhenge' of posts aligned to the solstice sunrises?

Cahokia, near present-day St Louis, had several timber circles dubbed Woodhenge; from a central post, marker posts line up with the solstice and equinox sunrises.

The word 'Yalda' comes from a Syriac word meaning what?

Birth: 'Yalda' is a Syriac word for birth, taken into Persian for the solstice night after which the Sun is seen as reborn and the days begin to lengthen.

Newgrange stands overlooking which Irish river?

The Boyne: Newgrange sits on a ridge above a bend of the River Boyne in County Meath, the centrepiece of the Bru na Boinne World Heritage Site.

Which Persian poet's verse is traditionally read aloud on Yalda Night?

Hafez: on Yalda Night families open the Divan of Hafez at random and read the ghazal on that page as a fortune, a custom called fal-e Hafez.

Which cycles link slow changes in Earth's tilt and orbit to the timing of ice ages?

Milankovitch cycles: Milutin Milankovitch showed in the 1920s that the roughly 41,000-year swing in Earth's tilt, together with changes in orbital shape and precession, paces the ice ages.

Stonehenge stands on which chalk upland in Wiltshire?

Salisbury Plain holds Stonehenge about two miles west of Amesbury, and the monument's axis lines up with the midwinter sunset.

The Yalda festival is also known by which other name, meaning 'fortieth'?

Chelle: Yalda is also called Shab-e Chelleh, 'night of the fortieth', because it opens the forty-day 'great chelleh', the deepest stretch of the Persian winter.

After the winter solstice, what happens to the length of the days?

They start getting longer: the winter solstice is the turning point, and each day afterwards carries a little more daylight, by only seconds at first, until the summer solstice.

Stonehenge's great sarsen stones were raised around which date?

About 2500 BC: the sarsen circle and trilithons went up around then, five centuries after the first earthwork enclosure was dug about 3000 BC; the smaller bluestones were rearranged several times afterwards.

What are the two days a year called when day and night match in length?

The equinoxes: around 20 March and 22 September the Sun stands over the equator, giving roughly twelve hours of day and night everywhere on Earth.

With zero obliquity, how would a planet's spin axis relate to its orbit?

A planet with no tilt would have no seasons.

For a Northern Hemisphere observer, the winter solstice Sun rises furthest in which direction?

South-east: at the winter solstice the Sun rises at its most southerly point on the horizon, well south of east, and by the summer solstice the rising point has swung round to the north-east.

During the Northern Hemisphere's warm season, the Southern Hemisphere's shortest day lands on which dates?

June 20 or 21 is the southern winter solstice, mirroring the December 21 or 22 date in the north.

The Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak, aligned to the solstice sunrise, is in which country?

Egypt: Karnak, near Luxor, has its main axis aligned to the midwinter sunrise, and Hatshepsut's temple at Deir el-Bahari across the Nile shares the same solstice alignment.

The word 'solstice' comes from Latin roots meaning what?

The Sun's declination appears to pause at its northern or southern limit before reversing; a 16th-century English calque, 'sunstay', never caught on.

To ward off winter colds, Japanese custom calls for a solstice bath infused with which fruit?

The citrus soak, called yuzuyu, is tied to Toji, Japan's name for the same solar term that China marks as Dongzhi.

In the ancient Roman calendar, which date was counted as the winter solstice?

December 25: Roman writers placed the bruma, the solstice, eight days before the Kalends of January; Ovid in the Fasti calls it the first day of the 'new Sun'.

The Neolithic Goseck Circle, with openings for the solstice sunrise and sunset, is in which country?

Its two gaps line up with the midwinter sunrise and sunset, making it one of the oldest known solar observatories in Europe.

The Hindu festival Makara Sankranti marks the Sun's entry into which zodiac sign?

Capricorn: 'Makara' is the Sanskrit name for Capricorn, and Makara Sankranti, held around 14 January in honour of the sun god Surya, marks the Sun's move into that sign and the lengthening days.

Maeshowe, a passage grave lit by the setting midwinter sun, stands on which Scottish islands?

Orkney: Maeshowe, near Stenness on Mainland Orkney, was built around 2800 BC, and its passage catches the setting midwinter sun for a few weeks around the solstice.

Bede wrote that pagan Anglo-Saxons began their year with a solstice-time night called what?

Mothers' Night: Bede's De temporum ratione says the pagan Anglo-Saxons began their year on the night of 24-25 December, which they called Modranecht, 'the night of the mothers'.

Small wax or pottery figurines given at the Roman midwinter festival were called what?

Valuable presents would have flagged social rank against the season's spirit, so people swapped these tokens, candles or gag gifts, which Augustus loved.