tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/summer-solstice-55241/articlesSummer solstice – The Conversation2023-06-21T08:26:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2081782023-06-21T08:26:19Z2023-06-21T08:26:19ZWhat is a solstice? An astronomer explains the long and short of days, years and seasons<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533057/original/file-20230621-17-1n2qo0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C2%2C2000%2C1074&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A long-exposure photo reveals the Sun's path in the sky every day for a six-month period.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/bob_81667/3685994101/in/photolist-6BHFCr-69JwxK-268FbmG-aaWQXU-pBcooC-24tFzQY-6BMFhA-v8vL5v-eRGfBK-dRvGXJ-s817GW-eRGfyP-UD8MVM-8sWtp1-UJPkpe-nNm4ee-R8j67L-7ppJ4P-uKwxzV-6EbSfR-Q6QJuR-i2RtXE-84TFpR-24YVJHB-XHctj3-qHscEu-SbRGEU-vpNikh-7xwAmZ-TgV76V-9iyxng-7WuwZJ-7TWser-2ivLNBZ-8ccUBu-95mNez-8pMDw9-sRbs1i-7gJh5w-KE9aZo-93NQ78-obiiEs-25fsiAp-7NdofV-8ccUAS-qYdhiX-sg9cvh-PbbZpP-9uPEaM-sg9jm1">Bob Fosbury / Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Happy solstice everyone! The mid-year solstice in 2023 falls at 2:58 pm UTC on 21 June (or, in more advanced time zones like the one I’m writing from, in the early hours of 22 June).</p>
<p>Depending on where you are reading this, this will either be your winter solstice (for those in the southern hemisphere) or the summer solstice (for our northern readers). </p>
<p>But what is the solstice? What does it mean for our day-to-day lives? Well the answer all boils down to orbits – the way Earth whirls and wobbles as it wends its way around the Sun.</p>
<h2>The seasons: the result of a moving platform</h2>
<p>Earth is a moving platform – orbiting the Sun in a little more than 365 days. Despite our incredible orbital speed (around 30 kilometres per second), we don’t feel this motion. Instead, it appears to us as though the Sun is moving through the year.</p>
<p>Imagine for a moment you could remove Earth’s atmosphere, revealing the background stars at the same time as the Sun. Those stars, incredibly distant, rise and set every 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4 seconds - the true rotation period of Earth. </p>
<p>The Sun, though, rises and sets roughly every 24 hours – making the “solar day” 3 minutes and 56 seconds longer than Earth’s true rotation period.</p>
<p>That difference is the result of the Sun’s apparent motion against the background stars. From our imaginary airless Earth, we would see the Sun gradually sliding through the constellations of the zodiac, making one full lap of the sky in one year.</p>
<p>But things are a little more complicated. You see, our moving platform is tipped over, tilted on its side by about 23.5 degrees. </p>
<p>As we move around the Sun, our planet alternately tilts one hemisphere towards our star, then away again. This is the cause of the seasons.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533048/original/file-20230621-19-qd6khy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A diagram showing the Earth going around the Sun with the equinoxes and solstices marked." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533048/original/file-20230621-19-qd6khy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533048/original/file-20230621-19-qd6khy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533048/original/file-20230621-19-qd6khy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533048/original/file-20230621-19-qd6khy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533048/original/file-20230621-19-qd6khy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533048/original/file-20230621-19-qd6khy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533048/original/file-20230621-19-qd6khy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The length of the day changes over the year due to the slight tilt in the Earth’s axis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.bom.gov.au/social/blog/1762/solstices-and-equinoxes-the-reasons-for-the-seasons/">Bureau of Meteorology</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>When your hemisphere is tilted towards the Sun, you have summer – long days, with the noonday Sun high in the sky. Six months later, when you are tilted away, you have winter – the noonday Sun is low, days are shorter, and there is a chill in the air.</p>
<p>Between those extremes, the Sun gradually drifts north and south. At the extremes of its motion, it would be overhead from 23.5° north of the Equator (northern hemisphere midsummer) or 23.5° south (southern midsummer).</p>
<p>In total, then, the Sun’s motion moves it between two extremes some 47° apart. Low in the sky in winter, and high in summer.</p>
<h2>So what are the solstices?</h2>
<p>The two solstices are the points at which the Sun is either the farthest north in the sky (which is what we have today), or at its most southerly location.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533097/original/file-20230621-27-8ewjod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A map of the night sky showing the path of the Sun as it movesa against the background stars" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533097/original/file-20230621-27-8ewjod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/533097/original/file-20230621-27-8ewjod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533097/original/file-20230621-27-8ewjod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533097/original/file-20230621-27-8ewjod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533097/original/file-20230621-27-8ewjod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533097/original/file-20230621-27-8ewjod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/533097/original/file-20230621-27-8ewjod.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A map of the entire night sky, like a map of the Earth, showing (in red) the path followed by the Sun through the course of the year - a path known as the ‘ecliptic’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Pablo Carlos Budassi/Wikipedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>When the Sun is farthest north in the sky, it will appear lowest in the sky at noon from locations in the southern hemisphere. This also means the shortest period of daylight of the calendar year.</p>
<p>For the northern hemisphere, the situation is reversed – the summer solstice places the noonday Sun high in the sky, with the longest period of daylight of the year.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-sunrise-is-still-later-after-the-winter-solstice-shortest-day-77628">Why the sunrise is still later after the winter solstice shortest day</a>
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<p>In six months’ time, on December 22 this year, we will have the other solstice – marking the point at which the Sun is at its most southerly point in the sky. That will bring with it the longest day for those in the southern hemisphere, and the shortest for those in the north.</p>
<p>It’s easy to find out when the Sun will rise and set at your location. Many websites provide this information these days - <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/australia/toowoomba">here, for example, is all that information</a> for my home town – Toowoomba, in southeast Queensland.</p>
<h2>Defining the seasons: climate or cosmology?</h2>
<p>To an astronomer, and to many people around the world, today marks the change of the seasons. In the southern hemisphere, it is the first day of winter. In the north, the first of summer. </p>
<p>Strangely, the solstices are also known as midsummer’s day and midwinter’s day – which leads to the strange idea that winter starts at midwinter!</p>
<p>By this astronomical definition for the seasons, summer runs from midsummer to the autumnal equinox (when the Sun crosses the Equator). Autumn runs from that equinox to midwinter’s day. Winter goes from midwinter to the spring equinox, and spring goes from the spring equinox through to midsummer.</p>
<p><iframe id="XR0EX" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/XR0EX/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>In Australia, however, most people are familiar with seasons beginning on the first day of the months of March, June, September and December.</p>
<p>The reason is down to how our climate behaves. In a simple universe, one would expect the longest day to be the hottest (with most time for the Sun to heat the Earth) and the shortest day to be the coldest (the most hours of darkness for things to cool down). </p>
<p>However, things are somewhat more complex. The atmosphere, the ground, and particularly the oceans, take a long time to heat up and to cool down. The result? The warmest time of the year for many places (but not all!) comes a few weeks after midsummer. </p>
<p>While the days are getting shorter, the ocean, ground and air continue to warm up. Similarly, the coldest time in winter is usually a few weeks after midwinter.</p>
<p>Our concept of summer (rather than the astronomer’s definition) is built around this. We think of the middle of summer being the hottest time of year, and the middle of winter being the coldest. </p>
<p><iframe id="txPHo" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/txPHo/3/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>There’s always another secret</h2>
<p>Before I leave you to enjoy the rest of the year’s shortest (or longest) day, there’s one extra cool fact about the seasons that most people don’t appreciate. We imagine the seasons are of equal length - three months of each, in a 12-month year.</p>
<p>But we forget. Not all months are alike. Some are shorter than others (poor February). </p>
<p>Look at a calendar, and add up the days in each astronomical season, and you find something surprising. </p>
<p>The southern hemisphere summer (northern winter), from December 22 to March 21, lasts just 89 days. The southern winter (northern summer), by contrast, is almost 94 days long! </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-messy-history-of-our-modern-western-calendar-170780">The messy history of our modern, Western calendar</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>The southern autumn (March to June) is almost 93 days long, while the northern autumn (September to December) is only 90 days.</p>
<p>The reason behind these variations is, once again, all down to Earth’s orbit. As we move around the Sun, the distance to our star varies slightly. </p>
<p>Sometimes, we are closer to our star, and Earth moves faster in its orbit. At other times, we are more distant, and move slower.</p>
<p>In just a couple of weeks time, on July 7, Earth will reach its farthest point from the Sun, which astronomers call “aphelion”. On that date, we will be more than 152 million kilometres from our star. </p>
<p>Six months later, on January 3 2024, we will be at our closest to the Sun – “perihelion” – just over 147 million kilometres distant.</p>
<p>This really highlights one of the beauties of astronomy. Simply put – there’s always another secret – the deeper you look into something, the more beautiful complexity you will find. </p>
<p>So here’s to another 93 days of winter!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208178/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonti Horner does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The longest and shortest days of the year are marked by the Sun’s position in the sky – but the seasons lag behind.Jonti Horner, Professor (Astrophysics), University of Southern QueenslandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1978692023-06-14T12:35:08Z2023-06-14T12:35:08ZWhy this year’s summer solstice matters so much for a new religious movement mired in controversy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527130/original/file-20230518-27-mo3hkl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C1000%2C661&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A woman teaches a dance form, known as bhangra, during a 3HO gathering. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/mrsikhnet/2624619371">Gurumustuk Singh/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Throngs of people, most wearing white clothing and many adorned in <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/426737">traditional Sikh attire</a>, gathered in the Jemez mountains of New Mexico in June 2019. The occasion was the summer solstice. Those who came to celebrate were part of a community started in the U.S. in 1969 by an Indian Sikh man named Harbhajan Singh Puri, who later became known as Yogi Bhajan or Siri Singh Sahib. Puri was a Punjabi Sikh who had worked as a customs agent in India before moving to Canada and then to the U.S. He <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00068.x">gained a following</a> while teaching yoga in the U.S. </p>
<p>Puri’s followers formed a community that has spawned a number of organizations since its founding, and although it doesn’t have a single comprehensive moniker, the community is often referred to by two key organizations connected to it: <a href="https://www.3ho.org/">3HO</a>, which gets its name from the “three H’s” that stand for happy, healthy and holy, and <a href="https://www.sikhdharma.org/">Sikh Dharma International, or SDI</a>. Although the community has acquired <a href="https://www.3ho.org/events/level-1-bali-immersion-2023/">members across the world</a>, it remains largely U.S.-based. </p>
<p>Since 2019, the community has not gathered to mark the summer solstice. After a hiatus of three years, 3HO and SDI will once again hold a large-scale summer solstice event in June 2023. This gathering serves as an important opportunity for members scattered across the U.S. and across the globe to meet. As a <a href="https://www.memphis.edu/sociology/people/faculty_and_staff/simranjit-khalsa.php">sociologist of religion</a>, I have spent years researching this community, and I was also raised within it. This gives me a strong sense of the stakes of reopening the annual solstice celebration. </p>
<h2>3HO, SDI and the Sikh Panth</h2>
<p>Founded in 1969, 3HO is focused on the practice of kundalini yoga. Kundalini yoga uses various postures, chanting and breathing exercises to raise one’s <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17448727.2012.745303">kundalini, a form of sacred energy</a> that some schools of Hindu thought believe rests at the base of the spine.</p>
<p>SDI, formed in 1973, is focused on sharing the Sikh religion as taught by Puri. <a href="https://theconversation.com/who-are-the-sikhs-and-what-are-their-beliefs-97237">The Sikh religion is a tradition that originated in India</a> and is often closely tied to an ethnic identity. Within the 3HO and SDI communities as a whole, practitioners often see kundalini yoga and the Sikh religion as bound together, with one being a pathway to the other. Although each organization has a different focus, for members at the core of the community, the practices taught by each aren’t separable in their regular religious and spiritual practice. </p>
<p>The community is made up of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-8171.2008.00068.x">mostly converts to the Sikh faith</a>, and practitioners within it have <a href="https://india.oup.com/product/sikhs-at-large-9780195685985?">not always been accepted by Punjabi Sikhs</a>. Tensions between them and Punjabi Sikhs <a href="https://academic.oup.com/socrel/article-abstract/78/3/340/3940212">stem from a number of differences</a>, which include the practice of kundalini yoga, all-white attire and the reverence often shown for Puri. </p>
<p>In the wider Sikh community, yoga is not typically thought of as a Sikh practice, there is no religious imperative for wearing white clothing, and giving religious reverence to a living figure is largely frowned upon. The summer solstice celebration itself, which is not typically marked by Punjabi Sikhs, is another substantial difference. </p>
<h2>Summer solstice and current challenges</h2>
<p>The structure of the summer solstice event has varied over the decades, but <a href="https://www.3ho.org/summer-solstice/">major elements included</a> a daylong prayer for world peace, yoga classes, meditation and Sikh gurdwara, or temple, services.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A group of people sitting together and clapping." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530641/original/file-20230607-30-nbkt16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Summer solstice has been a time for community members to gather and engage with one another.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a9/3HO_Summer_Solstice_1970.jpg">Kundalini Research Institute and Teachings of Yogi Bhajan, via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, until this year, the community had not gathered to mark the summer solstice since 2019. This was partly due to the pandemic but also likely because it has been mired in crises. Since the death of Puri in 2004, a <a href="https://www.sfreporter.com/news/coverstories/2010/07/07/khalsa-vs-khalsa/">struggle for control of power and community resources</a> followed, though the community largely held itself together. </p>
<p>In 2020, however, <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/869564/pdf">allegations of sexual assault and abuse</a> leveled against Puri led many within the community to share additional allegations against other community members and community organizations. In remote meetings open to people connected to the community, some of which I attended, the <a href="https://religionnews.com/2020/08/18/yogi-bhajan-yoga-guru-and-founder-of-3ho-more-likely-than-not-sexually-abused-followers-says-report/">children of community members also voiced concerns</a> about physical and sexual abuse and neglect they had experienced in schools and camps initially created for children of the community. One example is the school <a href="https://miripiriacademy.org/">Miri Piri Academy</a> in Amritsar, a city in northern India.</p>
<p>An <a href="https://kundaliniresearchinstitute.org/en/timeline/report-by-an-olive-branch-issued/">independent organization set up to investigate the allegations</a> concluded in the fall of 2020 that “<a href="https://epsweb.org/an-olive-branch-report/">it is more likely than not</a>” that Puri engaged in several types of sexual misconduct.</p>
<p>Now, four years since the last large-scale gathering on the summer solstice, the community will once again <a href="https://www.3ho.org/summer-solstice/">open Ram Das Puri</a>, a plot of land in the mountains of New Mexico owned by the <a href="https://ssscorp.org/">Siri Singh Sahib Corp.</a>, another arm of the community that manages its assets and resources, to mark the summer solstice.</p>
<p>As the community gathers, it will be a time of reckoning with the past. In light of recent crises, attendance at the event may well indicate whether the community still retains a wide enough base to support it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197869/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simranjit Steel does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>3HO was founded in 1969, and SDI followed five years later. What are they, and what is the significance of the 2023 summer solstice for their followers?Simranjit Steel, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1963442022-12-20T13:37:24Z2022-12-20T13:37:24ZWhy winter solstice matters around the world: 4 essential reads<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501913/original/file-20221219-22-ai6626.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C1%2C1019%2C769&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stonehenge has long been the site of some of the most famous solstice celebrations. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/drone-point-of-view-of-the-sun-rising-over-stonehenge-on-news-photo/1366013168?phrase=winter%20solstice%20stonehenge&adppopup=true">Chris Gorman/Getty Images News</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you’ve already spend hours shoveling snow this year, you may be dismayed to realize that technically, it’s not yet winter. According to the astronomical definition, the season will officially begin in the Northern Hemisphere on <a href="https://aa.usno.navy.mil/calculated/seasons?year=2022&tz=5&tz_sign=-1&tz_label=false&dst=false&submit=Get+Data">Dec. 21, 2022</a>: the shortest day of the year, known as the winter solstice.</p>
<p>The weeks leading up to the winter solstice can feel long as days grow shorter and temperatures drop. But it’s also traditionally been a time of renewal and celebration – little wonder that so many cultures mark major holidays just around this time. </p>
<p>Here at The Conversation, we’ve rounded up four of our favorite stories on the solstice: from what it really is to how it’s been commemorated around the world.</p>
<h2>1. Journey of the Sun</h2>
<p>First things first: What is the winter solstice?</p>
<p>For starters, it’s not the day with the latest sunrise or the earliest sunset. Rather, it’s when “the Sun appears the lowest in the Northern Hemisphere sky and is at its farthest southern point over Earth,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-this-years-winter-solstice-and-the-great-conjunction-152224">wrote William Teets</a>, <a href="https://dyer.vanderbilt.edu/about-us/our-staff/">an astronomer</a> at Vanderbilt University. “After that, the Sun will start to creep back north again.” </p>
<p>In the Southern Hemisphere, meanwhile, Dec. 21, 2022 marks the summer solstice. Its winter solstice will arrive June 21, 2023, the same day the Northern Hemisphere celebrates its summer solstice.</p>
<p>“Believe it or not,” Teets added, “we are closest to the Sun in January”: a reminder that seasons come from the Earth’s axial tilt at any given time, not from its distance from our solar system’s star.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1401/sun_over_here_2.gif?1608652248"></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-you-need-to-know-about-this-years-winter-solstice-and-the-great-conjunction-152224">What you need to know about this year's winter solstice and the great conjunction</a>
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</em>
</p>
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<h2>2. Ancient astronomy</h2>
<p>Many Americans picturing winter solstice celebrations may immediately think of Stonehenge, but cultures have honored the solstice much closer to home. Many Native American communities have long held solstice ceremonies, explained University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign scholar Rosalyn LaPier, <a href="https://history.illinois.edu/directory/profile/rrlapier">an Indigenous writer, ethnobotanist and environmental historian</a>.</p>
<p>“For decades, scholars have studied the astronomical observations that ancient indigenous people made and sought to understand their meaning,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-winter-solstice-rituals-tell-us-about-indigenous-people-108327">LaPier wrote</a>. Some societies in North America expressed this knowledge through constructions at special sites, such as Cahokia in Illinois – temple pyramids and mounds, similar to those the Aztecs built, which align with the Sun on solstice days.</p>
<p>“Although some winter solstice traditions have changed over time, they are still a reminder of indigenous peoples’ understanding of the intricate workings of the solar system,” she wrote, and their “ancient understanding of the interconnectedness of the world.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-winter-solstice-rituals-tell-us-about-indigenous-people-108327">What winter solstice rituals tell us about indigenous people</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<h2>3. Dazzling light</h2>
<p>Rubén Mendoza, <a href="https://works.bepress.com/rubn-mendoza/">an archaeologist</a> at California State University, Monterey Bay, made an accidental discovery years ago at a mission church. In this worship space and many others that Catholic missionaries built during the Spanish colonial period, the winter solstice “triggers an extraordinary rare and fascinating event,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-sacred-light-in-the-darkness-winter-solstice-illuminations-at-spanish-missions-70250">he explained</a>: “a sunbeam enters each of these churches and bathes an important religious object, altar, crucifix or saint’s statue in brilliant light.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A ray of light illuminates golden touches on a tabernacle at the front of a church." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150557/original/image-20161216-26123-pe0aox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150557/original/image-20161216-26123-pe0aox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150557/original/image-20161216-26123-pe0aox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150557/original/image-20161216-26123-pe0aox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150557/original/image-20161216-26123-pe0aox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150557/original/image-20161216-26123-pe0aox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150557/original/image-20161216-26123-pe0aox.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Winter solstice illumination of the main altar tabernacle of the Spanish Royal Presidio Chapel, Santa Barbara, Calif.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rubén G. Mendoza</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<p>These missions were built to convert Native Americans to Catholicism – people whose cultures had already, for thousands of years, celebrated the solstice Sun’s seeming victory over darkness. Yet the missions incorporated those traditions in a new way, channeling the Sun’s symbolism into a Christian message.</p>
<p>“These events offer us insights into archaeology, cosmology and Spanish colonial history,” Mendoza wrote. “As our own December holidays approach, they demonstrate the power of our instincts to guide us through the darkness toward the light.”</p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-sacred-light-in-the-darkness-winter-solstice-illuminations-at-spanish-missions-70250">A sacred light in the darkness: Winter solstice illuminations at Spanish missions</a>
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<h2>4. Victory over darkness</h2>
<p>Our next story goes halfway around the world, describing the Persian solstice festival of Yalda. But it’s also an American story. Growing up in Minneapolis, <a href="https://www.umt.edu/provost/about/about-the-provost.php">anthropologist Pardis Mahdavi</a> explained, she felt a bit left out as neighbors celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas. That’s when her grandmother introduced her to their family’s Yalda traditions.</p>
<p>Millions of people around the world celebrate Yalda, which marks the sunrise after the longest night of the year. “Ancient Persians believed that evil forces were strongest on the longest and darkest night of the year,” <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-persian-festival-yalda-celebrates-the-triumph-of-light-over-darkness-with-pomegranates-poetry-and-sacred-rituals-173969">wrote Mahdavi</a>, who is now provost at the University of Montana. Families stayed up throughout the night, snacking and telling stories, then celebrating “as the light spilled through the sky in the moment of dawn.”</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A photograph from above of two women in headscarves arranging colorful fruit on a blanket." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501914/original/file-20221219-16-6hbnxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501914/original/file-20221219-16-6hbnxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501914/original/file-20221219-16-6hbnxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501914/original/file-20221219-16-6hbnxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501914/original/file-20221219-16-6hbnxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501914/original/file-20221219-16-6hbnxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501914/original/file-20221219-16-6hbnxe.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Yalda celebrates the sunrise after the longest night of the year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/two-females-preparing-food-decorated-table-royalty-free-image/857437630?phrase=jasmin%20merdan%20yalda&adppopup=true">Jasmin Merdan/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-persian-festival-yalda-celebrates-the-triumph-of-light-over-darkness-with-pomegranates-poetry-and-sacred-rituals-173969">A Persian festival, Yalda, celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, with pomegranates, poetry and sacred rituals</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives. The article has been updated to include the date of the summer and winter solstices in the Southern Hemisphere.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196344/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The dead of winter, when the longest night of the year takes place, has also traditionally been celebrated as a time of renewal and reverence.Molly Jackson, Religion and Ethics EditorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1848142022-06-17T14:00:28Z2022-06-17T14:00:28ZWiccan celebration of summer solstice is a reminder that change, as expressed in nature, is inevitable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469289/original/file-20220616-23-iljeu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C20%2C4500%2C2970&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For Wiccans, celebration of summer solstice is a spiritual practice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/participants-during-kupala-night-celebrations-the-slavic-news-photo/1221587700?adppopup=true">Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Summer solstice, a time when the northern hemisphere will <a href="https://www.almanac.com/content/first-day-summer-summer-solstice">experience the maximum hours of sunlight</a>, takes place on June 21 – and will be celebrated by followers of Wicca, a form of contemporary Paganism, with a holiday known as Litha. </p>
<p>On this day the North Pole is at its greatest tilt toward the sun, creating the longest day and the official beginning of summer. As a <a href="http://www.helenaliceberger.com/">sociologist of religion</a> whose research has focused on contemporary Paganism, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=S1kXj-gAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I</a> know that for Wiccans, it is a day of celebration and joy at the light’s full return. </p>
<h2>The fertile Goddess of midsummer</h2>
<p>Wiccans observe eight sabbats, or holidays, throughout the year. The year begins with Samhain, which is considered the Wiccan New Year, followed by Yule, Imbolc, Ostara, Beltane, Litha, Lughnasadh and Mabon. These form what is called the “Wheel of the Year.” Each sabbat celebrates what is happening at that moment in nature. Midsummer, the pinnacle of light, is the time for <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">celebrating nature’s growing fertility</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A chart listing the eight Pagan festivals known as sabbats." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=573&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/469303/original/file-20220616-22-kok4yv.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=720&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Wheel of the year.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://pendragon343.com/sabbats-ext.html">The Pagan Sabbats</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>As part of the ritual that marks each sabbat, <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">the earth and the divinities are venerated</a>. A central “myth” of every sabbat is the changing relationship between the God and the Goddess, who may have different aspects or be represented in several forms. For example, Diana may represent the Goddess in youth, Demeter the motherly aspect of the Goddess, and Hecate the crone. </p>
<p>Each sabbat celebrates a different aspect of the relationship between the Goddess and God. For most Wiccans this myth is viewed as symbolic of the ongoing cycle of life and in nature. The growth from youth, to adulthood, to old age, to death and then to the continuing cycle of new birth or rebirth. </p>
<p>The Goddess is viewed as eternal, but her form changes throughout the year: from a young woman, to a mother, and eventually a crone in fall; then back to a young woman the following spring. The God dies and is reborn, moving from child to lover to dying again each fall, which Wiccans believe ensures the growth of crops. Some Wiccans view the deities <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297251/drawing-down-the-moon-by-margot-adler/">as archetypes or symbols</a> while others see them as actual spiritual beings.</p>
<p>At Litha the Goddess is described as full with child and the God is seen as at his most virile. The image celebrates fertility, strength and growth in nature and in the participants’ lives. The fertility in people’s lives <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/wicca-history-belief-and-community-in-modern-pagan-witchcraft/oclc/1290055418">can take several forms</a>, such as the focus on what they have realized in the past year or what is still developing that they hope will come to fruition by the fall harvest. </p>
<h2>Creating sacred space during rituals</h2>
<p>All sabbats begin by creating sacred space, mostly outdoors when the weather permits. This is done by those leading the ritual walking around an area, chanting as a form of prayer and sprinkling the area with water and salt, which are believed to be spiritually cleansing. </p>
<p>Representatives of the elements – earth, air, fire, water – respectively associated with the four directions – north, east, south and west – are carried around the circle as well. For example, a crystal, a feather, a lit candle and a shell might be carried around the circle. All participants are asked to imagine a sphere of light over the circle and <a href="https://uscpress.com/A-Community-of-Witches">spirits or divinities associated with each of the directions are invited into it</a>. There is then a reading or poetry about the season and what it means in nature and in people’s lives.</p>
<p>In midsummer celebrations a bonfire is lit and people jump over it, <a href="https://www.learnreligions.com/litha-rites-and-rituals-2561483">holding a wish for the summer</a> in their minds. These can be personal wishes for the participant’s own growth or health or that of someone dear to them, or it can be for the protection of Mother Nature, such as wishing for rain if there were a drought or the end of flooding if there were floods. </p>
<p>These rituals can be performed alone or with others. Even those who normally practice alone <a href="https://uscpress.com/Solitary-Pagans">often join with others for the sabbats</a>. </p>
<h2>Change and nature</h2>
<p>At Yule, the sabbat that celebrates the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year and the beginning of winter, one is always reminded that from this day forth the light will be growing. Similarly at Litha, participants are reminded that from this time forward there will be a decrease in the light. </p>
<p>The focus is not only on the holiday and what it means immediately in nature and for the participants, but understanding it within the turning wheel of the year. It is a reminder that change is inevitable and normal even if it is sometimes enjoyable and at other times less so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen A. Berger does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For Wiccans, midsummer, with the maximum hours of sunlight, is the time for celebrating new life.Helen A. Berger, Affliate Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1734032022-01-10T13:36:59Z2022-01-10T13:36:59ZHow the Earth’s tilt creates short, cold January days<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/439145/original/file-20220102-17-1b3kzl8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C6%2C4163%2C2765&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Sun rises in Midland, Michigan, shortly after 8a.m. on Jan. 13, 2017.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://flic.kr/p/Q6LNQ5">Christian Collins/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Above the equator, winter officially <a href="https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/learn-about/weather/seasons/winter/when-does-winter-start">begins in December</a>. But in many areas, January is when it really takes hold. Atmospheric scientist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=B5TfCvMAAAAJ&hl=en">Deanna Hence</a> explains the weather and climate factors that combine to produce wintry conditions at the turn of the year.</em></p>
<h2>How does the Earth’s orbit influence our daylight and temperatures?</h2>
<p>As the Earth orbits the sun, it spins around an axis – picture a stick going through the Earth, from the North Pole to the South Pole. During the 24 hours that it takes for the Earth to rotate once around its axis, every point on its surface faces toward the Sun for part of the time and away from it for part of the time. This is what causes daily changes in sunlight and temperature. </p>
<p>There are two other important factors: First, the Earth is round, although it’s <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/earth-round.html">not a perfect sphere</a>. Second, its axis is tilted about 23.5 degrees relative to its path around the Sun. As a result, light falls directly on its equator but strikes the North and South poles at angles. </p>
<p>When one of the poles points more toward the Sun than the other pole, that half of the planet gets more sunlight than the other half, and it’s summer in that hemisphere. When that pole tilts away from the Sun, that half of the Earth gets less sunlight and it’s winter there.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438275/original/file-20211217-23072-g37bxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Graphic of Earth tilting on its axis, with Northern Hemisphere toward the sun." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438275/original/file-20211217-23072-g37bxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438275/original/file-20211217-23072-g37bxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438275/original/file-20211217-23072-g37bxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438275/original/file-20211217-23072-g37bxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=452&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438275/original/file-20211217-23072-g37bxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438275/original/file-20211217-23072-g37bxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/438275/original/file-20211217-23072-g37bxk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=568&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Earth’s tilt as it orbits around the Sun puts that one part of the planet more directly exposed to the Sun’s rays.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/tilt-of-the-earths-axis-and-earths-season-royalty-free-illustration/695485360">iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Seasonal changes are the most dramatic at the poles, where the changes in light are most extreme. During the summer, a pole receives 24 hours of sunlight and the Sun never sets. In the winter, the Sun never rises at all.</p>
<p>At the equator, which gets consistent direct sunlight, there’s very little change in day length or temperature year-round. People who live in high and middle latitudes, closer to the poles, can have very different ideas about seasons from those who live in the tropics.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WgHmqv_-UbQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">As the Earth orbits the Sun, sunlight strikes the surface at varying angles because of the planet’s tilt. This creates seasons.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>There’s an old saying, “As the days lengthen, the cold strengthens.” Why does it often get colder in January even though we’re gaining daylight?</h2>
<p>It depends on where you are in the world and where your air is coming from. </p>
<p>Earth’s surface constantly absorbs energy from the Sun and stores it as heat. It also emits heat back into space. Whether the surface is warming or cooling depends on the balance between how much solar radiation the planet is absorbing and how much it is radiating away. </p>
<p>But Earth’s surface isn’t uniform. Land typically heats up and cools off much faster than water. Water requires more energy to raise and lower its temperature, so it warms and cools more slowly. Because of this difference, water is a better heat reservoir than land – especially big bodies of water, like oceans. That’s why we tend to see bigger swings between warm and cold inland than in coastal areas.</p>
<p>The farther north you live, the longer it takes for the amount and intensity of daylight to start significantly increasing in midwinter, since your location is tilting away from the Sun. In the meantime, those areas that are getting little sunlight keep radiating heat out to space. As long as they receive less sunlight than the heat they emit, they will keep getting colder. This is especially true over land, which loses heat much more easily than water. </p>
<p>As the Earth rotates, air circulates around it in the atmosphere. If air moving into your area comes largely from places like the Arctic that don’t get much sun in winter, you may be on the receiving end of bitterly cold air for a long time. That happens in the Great Plains and Midwest when cold air swoops down from Canada.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1357784644524081154"}"></div></p>
<p>But if your air comes across a body of water that keeps a more even temperature through the year, these swings can be significantly evened out. Seattle is downwind from an ocean, which is why it is many degrees warmer than Boston in the winter even though it’s farther north than Boston.</p>
<h2>How quickly do we lose daylight before the solstice and gain it back afterward?</h2>
<p>This depends strongly on your location. The closer you are to one of the poles, the faster the rate of change in daylight is. That’s why Alaska can go from having hardly any daylight in the winter to hardly any darkness in the summer. </p>
<p>Even for a particular location, the change is not constant through the year. The rate of change in daylight is slowest at the solstices – December in winter, June in summer – and <a href="https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/09/11/why-losing-daylight-quickly-and-what-know-about-autumnal-equinox/ooZUrhowvIUpSgV1LfOUoO/story.html">fastest at the equinoxes</a>, in mid-March and mid-September. This change occurs as the area on Earth receiving direct sunlight swings from 23.5 N latitude – about as far north of the equator as Miami – to 23.5 S latitude, about as far south of the equator as Asunción, Paraguay. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/FmCJqykN2J0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This satellite view captures the four changes of seasons. On the equinoxes, March 20 and Sept. 20, the line between night and day is a straight north-south line, and the sun appears to sit directly above the equator. Earth’s axis is tilted away from the Sun at the December solstice and toward the Sun at the June solstice, spreading more and less light on each hemisphere. At the equinoxes, the tilt is at a right angle to the Sun and the light is spread evenly.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What’s happening on the opposite side of the planet right now?</h2>
<p>In terms of daylight, folks on the other side of the planet are seeing the exact opposite of what we’re seeing. Right now, they’re at the peak of their summer and are enjoying the largest amounts of daylight that they’re going to get for the year. I do research on <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=296639&org=NSF&from=news">Argentinian hailstorms</a> and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Deanna-Hence-2">Indian Ocean tropical cyclones</a>, and both of those warm-weather storm seasons are well into their peaks right now.</p>
<p>[<em>Over 140,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletters to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?source=inline-140ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>But there’s a key difference: The Southern Hemisphere has a lot less land and a lot more water than the Northern Hemisphere. Thanks to the influence of the southern oceans, land masses in the Southern Hemisphere tend to have fewer very extreme temperatures than land in the Northern Hemisphere does.</p>
<p>So even though a spot on the <a href="https://www.geodatos.net/en/antipodes">opposite side of the planet from your location</a> may receive exactly as much sunlight now as your area does in summer, the weather there may be different from the summer conditions you are used to. But it still can be fun to imagine a warm summer breeze on the far side of the Earth – especially in a snowy January.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173403/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Deanna Hence receives funding from NASA, the National Science Foundation, and the Illinois Campus Research Board.</span></em></p>The winter solstice is past, but bundle up – January is when winter really arrives in many parts of the Northern Hemisphere.Deanna Hence, Assistant Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1093802019-01-14T14:02:08Z2019-01-14T14:02:08ZCurious Kids: why are there different seasons at specific times of the year?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253677/original/file-20190114-43517-11n11cr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=149%2C4%2C2318%2C1580&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/spring-summer-fall-winter-four-seasons-505022926?src=RQ5HcZW83IpYVpS-wzMtlg-2-0">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/curious-kids-36782">Curious Kids</a> is a series for children of all ages, where The Conversation asks experts to answer questions from kids. All questions are welcome: find out how to enter at the bottom of this article.</em> </p>
<hr>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Why do we have different seasons at specific times of the year? – Shrey, age nine, Mumbai, India</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Over the course of a year, the Earth goes on a journey around the Sun. The reason we have seasons is because, during its journey around the Sun, the Earth is tilted. The Earth’s tilt affects the amount of daylight each hemisphere gets, which in turn makes the temperature hotter or colder. </p>
<p>For example, if you live in the northern hemisphere – that’s north of the equator, like in Europe, USA, or India – then winter happens in December, January and February. That’s when the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun, and the days are shorter. </p>
<p>For anywhere south of the equator, such as Australia or Latin America, it’s summer during these months. That’s because the southern hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, and the days are longer. </p>
<h2>Solstices and equinoxes</h2>
<p>Every season has a middle point. In summer and winter, these midpoints are called solstices. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-summer-solstice-an-astronomer-explains-98270">summer solstice</a> is the longest day, and shortest night, of the year. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/winter-solstice-the-astronomy-of-christmas-109026">winter solstice</a> is the shortest day of the year, and the longest night. </p>
<p>In spring and autumn, the midpoints are called the <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/september-equinox.html">equinoxes</a>. At the spring and autumn equinoxes, day and night are the same length. </p>
<p>For <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/">thousands and thousands of years</a> – right back to the Stone Age – people have known how to work out when the solstices and equinoxes happen throughout the year. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253672/original/file-20190114-43535-env5rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253672/original/file-20190114-43535-env5rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253672/original/file-20190114-43535-env5rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253672/original/file-20190114-43535-env5rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253672/original/file-20190114-43535-env5rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253672/original/file-20190114-43535-env5rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253672/original/file-20190114-43535-env5rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253672/original/file-20190114-43535-env5rp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Stonehenge at sunset.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/beckner/4510751202/sizes/o/">codybeckner/Flickr.</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, they built hundreds of amazing stone circles – like the famous Stonehenge – all over Europe, which <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-33205212">marked certain times</a> of the seasons across the year. </p>
<p>These days, we even know how to calculate the seasons on other planets. For example, the next Spring equinox on Mars is on the <a href="http://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/mars/mars-calendar.html">23rd March</a>. </p>
<h2>Journey around the Sun</h2>
<p>To understand how this works, imagine a small ball (representing the Earth) moving around a lightbulb (the Sun) in a circle. Let’s say the ball has a line drawn around the middle, representing the equator. If you have these things at home, you can try this yourself. </p>
<p>As the ball moves around the lightbulb, the half closest to the light will be lit, while the other half will be in darkness. One full circle around the lightbulb represents one full year on Earth. </p>
<p>As you move the ball around the lightbulb, try spinning it between your fingertips, so that the light always shines directly onto the equator. </p>
<p>If the Earth span like this, day and night would be the same length all year round, and there would be no seasons.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253664/original/file-20190114-43529-8dmw2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253664/original/file-20190114-43529-8dmw2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253664/original/file-20190114-43529-8dmw2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253664/original/file-20190114-43529-8dmw2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253664/original/file-20190114-43529-8dmw2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253664/original/file-20190114-43529-8dmw2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253664/original/file-20190114-43529-8dmw2n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Earth without seasons.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Whittaker.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Now, take that small ball and tilt it at an angle, so that the light from the bulb no longer shines directly on the equator. If you are doing this at home, it might help to colour in either the top or bottom half of the ball. </p>
<h2>The Earth’s tilt</h2>
<p>Now the hemispheres of the ball will get different amounts of light at any one time. The hemisphere tilted away from the bulb gets less light, and the hemisphere tilted towards the bulb gets more. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253670/original/file-20190114-43517-1u5ztz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253670/original/file-20190114-43517-1u5ztz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253670/original/file-20190114-43517-1u5ztz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253670/original/file-20190114-43517-1u5ztz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253670/original/file-20190114-43517-1u5ztz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253670/original/file-20190114-43517-1u5ztz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253670/original/file-20190114-43517-1u5ztz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Earth in January.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Whittaker.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That means it’s “summer” in the hemisphere tilted towards the lightbulb, and “winter” in the hemisphere tilted away.</p>
<p>Keeping the ball at the same angle, move it to the other side of the light bulb. The hemisphere that was tilted away from the bulb is now tilted towards it. So, the hemisphere that was in “winter” when you started moving the ball, is now in “summer”, and the hemisphere that was in “summer” is now in “winter”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253671/original/file-20190114-43525-1mx4f3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/253671/original/file-20190114-43525-1mx4f3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253671/original/file-20190114-43525-1mx4f3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253671/original/file-20190114-43525-1mx4f3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=200&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253671/original/file-20190114-43525-1mx4f3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253671/original/file-20190114-43525-1mx4f3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/253671/original/file-20190114-43525-1mx4f3m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=251&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Earth in June.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ian Whittaker.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The same thing happens as the Earth moves around the Sun, which is what gives us different seasons at specific times of the year. </p>
<p>Remember, the decrease in sunlight and colder temperatures you get during winter is not because the hemisphere is further away, but because the sun is above the horizon for a much shorter time. </p>
<hr>
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<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=376&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/165749/original/image-20170419-32713-1kyojyz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=472&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
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<p><em>More <a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/curious-kids-36782?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">Curious Kids</a> articles, written by academic experts:</em></p>
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<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-why-has-nobody-found-any-life-outside-of-earth-105128?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">Why has nobody found any life outside of Earth? – Anna, age 12, Sydney, Australia</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-is-everything-really-made-of-molecules-109145?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">People say that everything is made of molecules. Are feelings made of molecules? Is sound made of molecules? – Claire, age six, Bristol, UK</a></em></p></li>
<li><p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-do-cats-and-dogs-understand-us-when-we-miaow-or-bark-107383?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=CuriousKidsUK">Do cats and dogs understand humans when they make miaowing or barking noises? – Mila, age 11 and Alex, age eight</a></em></p></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109380/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The reason we have seasons is because, during its journey around the Sun, the Earth is tilted.Gareth Dorrian, Post Doctoral Research Associate in Space Science, Nottingham Trent UniversityIan Whittaker, Lecturer, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1083272018-12-13T11:45:12Z2018-12-13T11:45:12ZWhat winter solstice rituals tell us about indigenous people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250110/original/file-20181211-76959-1t54ens.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Blackfeet always faced their tipis towards the rising sun, including on winter solstice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f6/Large_tipis_in_Blackfeet_inner-circle._43.jpg">Beinecke Library via Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On the day of winter <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-summer-solstice-an-astronomer-explains-98270">solstice</a>, many Native American communities will hold religious ceremonies or community events. </p>
<p>The winter solstice is the day of the year when the Northern Hemisphere has the fewest hours of sunlight and the Southern Hemisphere has the most. For indigenous peoples, it has been a time to honor their ancient sun deity. They passed their knowledge down to successive generations through <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9781496200402/">complex stories</a> and ritual practices.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.rosalynlapier.com/">scholar</a> of the environmental and Native American religion, I believe, there is much to learn from ancient religious practices.</p>
<h2>Ancient architecture</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.oupress.com/books/9781254/living-the-sky">For decades</a>, <a href="https://www.unmpress.com/books/earth-my-mother-sky-my-father/9780826316349">scholars</a> <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=dgzfoQEACAAJ&dq=ojibwe+stars&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjt5KCW_5rfAhXBg-AKHTMyC6AQ6AEIMzAB">have studied</a> the astronomical observations that ancient indigenous people made and sought to understand their meaning.</p>
<p>One such place was at <a href="https://cahokiamounds.org/">Cahokia</a>, near the Mississippi River in what is now Illinois across from St. Louis.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250121/original/file-20181211-76983-b7dxjb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Cahokia mounds.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dougtone/13436519774">Doug Kerr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In Cahokia, indigenous people built numerous temple pyramids or mounds, similar to the structures built by the Aztecs in Mexico, over a thousand years ago. Among their constructions, what most stands out is an intriguing structure made up of wooden posts arranged in a circle, known today as “Woodhenge.”</p>
<p>To understand the purpose of Woodhenge, scientists watched the sun rise from this structure on winter solstice. What they found was telling: The sun aligned with both Woodhenge and the top of a temple mound – a temple built on top of a pyramid with a flat top – in the distance. They also found that the sun aligns with a different temple mound on summer solstice. </p>
<p>Archaeological <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/296469/cahokia-by-timothy-r-pauketat/9780143117476">evidence</a> suggests that the people of Cahokia venerated the sun as a deity. Scholars believe that ancient indigenous societies observed the solar system carefully and wove that knowledge into their architecture. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/on6JybDqLRc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Clip from ‘Cahokia’s Celestial Calendar (Woodhenge)’ episode of PBS’ ‘Native America.’</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Scientists have speculated that the Cahokia held rituals to honor the sun as a giver of life and for the new agricultural year.</p>
<h2>Complex understandings</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-zuni-way-150866547/">Zuni Pueblo</a> is a contemporary example of indigenous people with an agricultural society in western New Mexico. They grow corn, beans, squash, sunflowers and more. Each year they hold annual harvest festivals and numerous religious ceremonies, including at the winter solstice. </p>
<p>At the time of the winter solstice they hold a multiday celebration, known as the <a href="https://www.uncpress.org/book/9780807859353/we-have-a-religion/">Shalako festival</a>. The days for the celebration are selected by the religious leaders. The Zuni are intensely private, and most events are not for public viewing. </p>
<p>But what is shared with the public is near the end of the ceremony, when six Zuni men dress up and embody the spirit of giant bird deities. These men carry the Zuni prayers for rain “to all the corners of the earth.” The Zuni deities are believed to provide “blessings” and “balance” for the coming seasons and agricultural year. </p>
<p>As religion scholar <a href="https://divinity.yale.edu/faculty-and-research/yds-faculty/tisa-wenger">Tisa Wenger</a> writes, “The Zuni believe their ceremonies are necessary not just for the well-being of the tribe but for "the entire world.” </p>
<h2>Winter games</h2>
<p>Not all indigenous peoples ritualized the winter solstice with a ceremony. But that doesn’t mean they didn’t find other ways to celebrate. </p>
<p>The Blackfeet tribe in Montana, where I am a member, historically kept a calendar of astronomical events. They marked the time of the winter solstice and the “return” of the sun or “Naatosi” on its annual journey. They also faced their tipis – or portable conical tents – east toward the rising sun. </p>
<p>They rarely held large religious gatherings in the winter. Instead the Blackfeet viewed the time of the winter solstice as a time for <a href="http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/bitstream/handle/2246/204//v2/dspace/ingest/pdfSource/ant/A007a01.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">games</a> and community dances. As a child, my grandmother enjoyed attending community dances at the time of the winter solstice. She remembered that each community held their own gatherings, with unique drumming, singing and dance styles. </p>
<p>Later, in my own research, I learned that the Blackfeet moved their dances and ceremonies during the <a href="https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/university-of-nebraska-press/9781496201508/">early reservation years</a> from times on their religious calendar to times acceptable to the U.S. government. The dances held at the time of the solstice were moved to Christmas Day or to New Year’s Eve.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/250260/original/file-20181212-110243-y812wa.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=469&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The solstice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Equinoxes-solstice_EN.svg">Divad, from Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, my family still spends the darkest days of winter playing card games and attending the local community dances, much like my grandmother did.</p>
<p>Although some winter solstice traditions have changed over time, they are still a reminder of indigenous peoples understanding of the intricate workings of the solar system. Or as the Zuni Pueblo’s rituals for all peoples of the earth demonstrate – of an ancient understanding of the interconnectedness of the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/108327/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rosalyn R. LaPier does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For indigenous peoples, winter solstice has been a time to honor their ancient sun deity. Their rituals reveal a deep understanding of the natural world.Rosalyn R. LaPier, Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, University of MontanaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/991712018-07-03T10:34:59Z2018-07-03T10:34:59ZFeasting rituals – and the cooperation they require – are a crucial step toward human civilization<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225788/original/file-20180702-116139-1nsb3r3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=136%2C161%2C5100%2C3626&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Coming together for a solstice feast in ancient Peru.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert Gutierrez</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>“<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444">The Epic of Gilgamesh</a>” is one of the earliest texts known in the world. It’s the story of a god-king, Gilgamesh, who ruled the city of Uruk in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium B.C. Within its lines, the epic hints at how the ancients viewed the origins of their civilization.</p>
<p>Gilgamesh’s antagonist, Enkidu, is described as a wild man, living with the beasts and eating grasses with the gazelles. But he’s seduced by a beautiful temple priestess who then offers him clothing and food, saying “Enkidu, eat bread, it is the staff of life; drink the wine, it is the custom of the land.” And so Enkidu is transformed from a naked wild beast into a “civilized” man living with other people. </p>
<p>Both bread and wine are products of settled society. They represent the power to control nature and create civilization, converting the wild into the tamed, the raw into the cooked – and their transformation cannot be easily done alone. The very act of transforming the wild into the civilized is a social one, requiring many people to work together.</p>
<p>Over the past few decades, archaeological theory has shifted toward the idea that civilization arose in different regions around the world thanks to the evolution of cooperation. Archaeologists have discovered that the consumption of food and drink in ritually prescribed times and places — <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007%2Fb100538">known technically as feasting</a> — is one of the cornerstones of heightened sociality and cooperation throughout human history. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=azeL_5EAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">My own research</a> in Peru bears this out. The data from my colleagues’ and my work provides yet another detailed case study for theorists to model the evolution of complexity in one of the rare places where a civilization independently developed.</p>
<h2>Signs of cooperation in Peru</h2>
<p>How does complex society originate out of the hunter-gatherer bands and small settled villages that dominated the globe well into the early Holocene around 9,000 years ago? And once such social organizations develop, what kinds of mechanisms sustain these new societies sufficiently to develop into the Uruks of the ancient world?</p>
<p>Six years ago, after 30 years of research in the Titicaca Basin in the high Andes, my colleague Henry Tantaleán and I started a long-term archaeological research program in the valley of Chincha in the south coast of Peru. Thanks to work by previous archaeologists and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1806632115">our own new data</a>, we have been able to piece together a comprehensive prehistory of the valley beginning several millennia ago.</p>
<p>One significant time period is known as Paracas; it lasted from roughly 800 to 200 B.C. This is the time when the first complex societies developed in the region, the origin of civilization in this part of the ancient world. We documented a massive Paracas presence in the valley, ranging from large pyramid structures to modest villages scattered over the landscape.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225789/original/file-20180702-116123-zaz5bh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Geoglyphs that modified the landscape are still visible, delineating a path to where the sun sets on the summer solstice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Stanish</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Across the hyper-arid pampa lands above the valley, the Paracas peoples built linear geoglyphs: designs etched into the desert landscape that they lined with small field stones. We found five sets of lines that all concentrated on the five major Paracas sites at the edge of the pampa. We also found many small structures built between the lines.</p>
<p>Our research indicated that a number of these small structures and many of the lines pointed to the June solstice sunset. Previous work by our team <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1136415">and others throughout Peru</a> unequivocally indicates that the pre-Columbian peoples of the Andes used the solstices to mark important events.</p>
<p>We concluded that these sites were the endpoints of ritually significant social events that were timed by the solstices and possibly other astronomical phenomena.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225792/original/file-20180702-116123-15s5x0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Excavation of a structure in the Chincha pampa with the walls aligned to the June solstice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Stanish</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Feasting at Paracas</h2>
<p>We chose to intensively study one endpoint site, called Cerro del Gentil, to assess its significance in Paracas culture. The site is a large platform mound with three levels. The base level measures 50 by 120 meters at its maximum. Each level contains a sunken patio measuring around 12 meters on a side.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=903&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225793/original/file-20180702-116123-pdnqfm.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1135&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woven cloth bag stuffed with human hair.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">PNAS</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Excavations by Tantaleán and his team in one of these patios yielded a rich trove of artifacts, including textiles, food stuffs, pottery, decorated gourds, stone objects, reeds, miscellaneous objects and human offerings. We found large pottery vessels that held chicha or maize beer, the equivalent to Enkidu’s wine. There was evidence of food preparation as well, though we did not find a resident population. We found large numbers of pottery serving vessels and evidence of termination rituals involving liquid libations poured into the patio at the conclusion of some elaborate feasts.</p>
<p>Cerro del Gentil, in fact, was a classic archaeological example of a very significant feasting place. No one seemed to live at this well-built location year-round, though there was plenty of evidence that from time to time many people were present to eat, drink and even make human sacrifices together, probably at particular special times of the astronomical calendar. </p>
<p>We used the Cerro del Gentil data to test the following hypotheses about how the earliest cooperative human groups came together: Did people start out small, feasting within their local group and then expanding to incorporate more distant groups? Or, did the earliest successful groups develop contacts with distant autonomous groups around a large region?</p>
<p>Our colleague <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=gww5znAAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Kelly Knudson</a> from Arizona State University analyzed the strontium ratios in 39 organic objects found in the patios as offerings. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.04.009">ratio of 87Sr/86Sr in any organic object</a>, including humans, tells us from what geographical zone that object is from. We discovered that objects in the patio were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1806632115">from a very broad range of ecozones</a> all around the south central Andes. Some objects came from as far as the Titicaca Basin 600 kilometers away, others from the south coast 200 or so kilometers distant.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225795/original/file-20180702-116152-pzj77p.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A small geoglyph in the Chincha pampa with the center line defining the June solstice.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Charles Stanish</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Feasting rituals build a young civilization</h2>
<p>This case study demonstrates that the earliest successful complex societies in the south coast of Peru circa 400 B.C. involved a wide catchment of people and objects. At least in Paracas society, the optimal strategy of civilization building involved creating widespread alliances early on and then expanding on this model over centuries. We know this because people in Cerro del Gentil incorporated objects and even people in their offerings from distant areas.</p>
<p>In contrast, at a later ceremonial site where the catchment was quite small, all of the objects and human remains were from the immediate environs, as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2016.01.016">evidenced by strontium analysis</a>. The Paracas pattern detected at Cerro del Gentil contrasts with a strategy in which people focused on their local group and then grew incrementally over time. My colleagues and I plan to use these sorts of comparative cases to try to understand which strategies work better in which environmental and social contexts.</p>
<p>The evidence from Cerro del Gentil supports the theory I wrote about in my recent book “<a href="http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/anthropology/social-and-cultural-anthropology/evolution-human-co-operation-ritual-and-social-complexity-stateless-societies">The Evolution of Human Co-operation</a>” – that cooperation in non-state societies is achieved by “ritualizing” the economy. People construct norms, rituals and taboos to organize their economic and political life. Far from being quaint and exotic customs of “primitive peoples,” elaborate rules of behavior, encoded in rich ritual practices, are ingenious means of organizing a society where coercion is absent.</p>
<p>Ritual practices reward cooperators and punish cheaters. They therefore promote sustained group behavior toward common goals and solve what is famously known as the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199566020.003.0008">collective action problem</a>” in human social life – how do you get everyone to work together toward something that’s in everyone’s long-term self-interest? Feasting is a key component of this kind of sociality and cooperation. Enkidu’s bread and wine is still relevant 5,000 years later.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99171/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charles Stanish receives funding from
National Science Foundation
National Geographic Society
University of South Florida
Institute for Field Research</span></em></p>How did civilization emerge from small groups of hunter-gatherers? Some archaeologists focus on cooperation as the vital ingredient – and find evidence for it in the form of feast-related artifacts.Charles Stanish, Exec. Director, Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment; Professor of Anthropology, University of South FloridaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/982702018-06-18T10:39:20Z2018-06-18T10:39:20ZWhat is the summer solstice? An astronomer explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223408/original/file-20180615-85825-1mxkb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C16%2C2788%2C1337&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Northern Hemisphere gets its biggest dose of daylight.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=6125&src=ve">Takmeng Wong and the CERES Science Team at NASA Langley Research Center</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The summer solstice marks the official start of summer. It brings the longest day and shortest night of the year for the <a href="https://brilliantmaps.com/human-hemisphere/">88%</a> of Earth’s people who live in the Northern Hemisphere. People around the world traditionally observe the change of seasons with bonfires and festivals and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%C3%AAte_de_la_Musique">Fête de la Musique celebrations</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223401/original/file-20180615-85834-18urdke.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223401/original/file-20180615-85834-18urdke.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223401/original/file-20180615-85834-18urdke.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223401/original/file-20180615-85834-18urdke.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223401/original/file-20180615-85834-18urdke.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223401/original/file-20180615-85834-18urdke.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223401/original/file-20180615-85834-18urdke.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223401/original/file-20180615-85834-18urdke.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=495&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The solstice is the 24-hour period during the year when the most daylight hits the Northern Hemisphere.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Earth-lighting-summer-solstice_EN_-_corrected.png">Przemyslaw 'Blueshade' Idzkiewicz</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Astronomers can calculate an exact moment for the solstice, when Earth reaches the point in its orbit where the North Pole is angled closest to the sun. That moment will be at 10:58 a.m. Eastern Time on June 21 this year. From Earth, the sun will appear farthest north relative to the stars. People living on the Tropic of Cancer, 23.5 degrees north of the Equator, will see the sun pass straight overhead at noon.</p>
<p>Six months from now the sun will reach its southern extreme and pass overhead for people on the Tropic of Capricorn, and northerners will experience their shortest days of the year, at the winter solstice.</p>
<p>The sun’s angle relative to Earth’s equator changes so gradually close to the solstices that, without instruments, the shift is difficult to perceive for about 10 days. This is the origin of the word solstice, which means “solar standstill.”</p>
<p>This slow shift means that June 21 is only about 1 second longer than June 19 at mid-northern latitudes. It will be about a week before there’s more than a minute change to the calculated amount of daylight. Even that’s an approximation – Earth’s atmosphere bends light over the horizon by different amounts depending on weather, which can introduce changes of more than a minute to sunrise and sunset times.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223407/original/file-20180615-85863-u1p4jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223407/original/file-20180615-85863-u1p4jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/223407/original/file-20180615-85863-u1p4jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223407/original/file-20180615-85863-u1p4jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223407/original/file-20180615-85863-u1p4jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223407/original/file-20180615-85863-u1p4jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223407/original/file-20180615-85863-u1p4jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/223407/original/file-20180615-85863-u1p4jf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Even today, visitors flock to see the solstice at Stonehenge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/stonehenge-stone-circle/27812848615">Stonehenge Stone Circle</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>Monuments at <a href="http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/stonehenge/">Stonehenge</a> in England, <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/the-best-places-to-see-and-celebrate-the-winter-solstice-169694017/">Karnak</a> in Egypt, and <a href="https://www.wmf.org/project/chankillo">Chankillo</a> in Peru reveal that people around the world have taken note of the sun’s northern and southern travels for more than 5,000 years. From Stonehenge’s circle of standing stones, the sun will rise directly over an ancient avenue leading away to the northeast on the solstice. We know little about the people who built Stonehenge, or why they went to such great effort to construct it – moving multi-ton stones from rock outcrops as far as 140 miles away.</p>
<p>All this to mark the spot on the horizon where the sun returns each year to rest for a while before moving south again. Perhaps they, like us, celebrated this signal of the coming change of seasons.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of an article originally published on June 18, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/98270/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Schneider does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The tilt of Earth’s axis as it orbits the sun results in the seasonal changes.Stephen Schneider, Professor of Astronomy, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.