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.
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Articles on Solstice
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Popular belief suggests the highest tides in the St. Lawrence River are reached around the equinoxes. In truth, they arrive close to the solstices.
Christmas was popularized in the United States during the American Civil War, when Harper’s Weekly featured the image of Santa Claus visiting the Union Army on its front page.
The 2020 winter solstice is also when Saturn and Jupiter appear closest to each other for 60 years, Here’s what you need to know about both the events.
The reason we have seasons is because, during its journey around the Sun, the Earth is tilted.
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.
The tilt of Earth’s axis as it orbits the sun results in the seasonal changes.
A solar day is a measure of how long it takes the Earth to rotate from one noon to the next, and today’s summer solstice also happens to be the longest solar day of the year.
Top contributors
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Acting Director and Astronomer, Dyer Observatory, Vanderbilt University
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Senior Curator (Astronomy), Museums Victoria, and Honorary Fellow, The University of Melbourne
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Professor of Political Science, University of Arkansas
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Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Space Science, University of Birmingham
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Provost and Executive Vice President, University of Montana
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Professor of History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Chair/Professor, Division of Social, Behavioral & Global Studies, California State University, Monterey Bay
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Senior Lecturer in Physics, Nottingham Trent University
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Professor of Astronomy, UMass Amherst
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Exec. Director, Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment; Professor of Anthropology, University of South Florida
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Professeur en océanographie physique, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR)
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Professeur-chercheur en océanographie physique, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR)
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Professeur en océanographie physique, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR)
