Today is the Celebration of Winter Solstice Traditions – Monday, December 21, 2009 marks the Winter Solstice traditions, and this is the announcement of the official start of the winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Winter Solstice is also known as Yule.
More precisely, winter solstice will take place at 12:47 pm EST (1747 GMT) on Dec. 21. It is a date that will also mark the shortest day and longest night.
Winter solstice falls every year around Dec. 21. It is because of the earth’s axial tilt, which is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26′. At this time of the year, the sun is closer to the horizon, thus giving out least amount of daylight therefore shortening the day and lengthening the night.
But there is a bright side to it. Starting Tuesday, the days will start getting longer, leading to summer solstice, which in 2010 will fall on June 21. At that time, the day will be the longest with the daytime lasting for about 15 hours compared to 9 hours on Monday.
Now, what are the traditional celebrations during the Winter Solstice? Throughout the history, solstices have been accompanied with the countless cultural and religious traditions.
Our ancestors lived in a world where everyone believed in mystery and magic. Every year, they gathered together to celebrate the seemingly miraculous return of the light after the longest night of the year and that’s how Winter Solstice festivals were born. To this day, people all over the world celebrate Winter Solstice as a time of rebirth, a new beginning and a chance to marvel at the power of transition from darkness into light.
Today is winter solstice the shortest day of the year that has a special significance to almost all cultures and countries in the world. But there is another significance on a much grander scale to this day, three years from now. On this day 21st December 2012, the plane of ellipse on which the planets of the solar system revolves around the sun completes one full round with respect to the equator of the milky way, this happens once every 26,000 years!! The last time this event happened, earth was in the peak of last ice age. This time around we have had a failed global conference to prevent another impeding climate change.
But I am digressing; So what will happen on 21st December 2012. For one, it is the end of the Mayan calendar, yep, those very literate, prosperous and great pyramid builders also calculated empirically astronomic movements at a time when humans in other parts of the world were busy hunting and gathering, worrying either for the next meal or mate.
So the Mayans ended their “long count” calendar on 21st December 2012 and given our compulsion to intellectualize and find answers, there are many opinions on why did their calendar end on this day than any other. Lots of theories of doomsday have been going around; reversal of earth’s magnetic fields, giant intergalactic fire storms destroying planets, apocalypse and the like. There are also some who opinion that earth and its inhabitants will undergo a positive physical or spiritual transformation on this day with one cycle getting over and another commencing. An equivalent of a Hindu “uga” coming to an end. Our cumulative knowledge on this subject is thus effectively limited by our imagination at best.
[...] to Daily World Buzz, Winter solstice falls every year around Dec. 21. It is because of the earth’s axial tilt, which [...]
[...] it’s about calming down, spending time with my family and loved ones, and celebrating the Winter Solstice. (I don’t give presents or even send Christmas cards. It’s so liberating!) In the West, [...]