tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/winter-solstice-34440/articlesWinter solstice – The Conversation2023-12-07T14:24:36Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2187792023-12-07T14:24:36Z2023-12-07T14:24:36ZYule – a celebration of the return of light and warmth<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/564046/original/file-20231206-23-nd15am.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=104%2C26%2C5701%2C3838&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">People gather for Pagan sunrise celebrations in Ireland, on the morning of the winter solstice.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-gather-for-sunrise-at-newgrange-co-meath-on-the-news-photo/1245764534?adppopup=true">Brian Lawless/PA Images via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Yule will be celebrated by Wiccans and many other Pagans in the Northern Hemisphere on Dec. 21, the day of the winter solstice. For Pagans, the shortest day of the year marks the <a href="https://uscpress.com/Search?q=A+community+of+Witches">end of the descent into darkness</a> and the beginning of the return of the light as the days begin to get longer after the solstice. Like many other religious holidays, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2016/12/festivals-of-light/510518/">Yule is a celebration of light</a>.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.helenaliceberger.com/">sociologist who has been studying contemporary Pagans</a> for more than 30 years, I know that Yule is also a time of reflection. The cold dark period of the year, many Wiccans feel, encourages us to not only spend more time at home, but also to become more reflective about our lives – and often about spirituality. </p>
<h2>Marking the beginning of winter</h2>
<p>Wicca is a minority religion that is part of the larger contemporary Pagan movement. Pagans normally define their religion as earth-based. By this they mean <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-wicca-an-expert-on-modern-witchcraft-explains-165939">they see divinity in nature</a> and connect their rituals to the changing seasons. All forms of contemporary Paganism look to pre-Christian European religions to inform their religious practice. </p>
<p>Wiccans regularly call themselves Witches, although not all Witches are Wiccans. The religion puts more emphasis on participating in rituals and having spiritual experiences than on particular beliefs.</p>
<p>Yule is one of the eight major holidays or “sabbats” that divide the year into the beginning and peak of each season. Yule denotes the beginning of winter. There is a <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/wicca-9781845197544?cc=us&lang=en&">ritual for each holiday</a> that focuses on what is occurring in nature and correspondingly in people’s lives. At this time of year, people are experiencing both the height of darkness and the knowledge and hope that the light and warmth will return. </p>
<p>When I began my research about this religion in 1986, the norm for contemporary Pagans was to form into small groups, which Wiccans call covens. These spiritual congregations meet regularly for holidays, learning and discussions. While covens still exist, the primary way of practicing is as “solitaires.” These solitary practitioners may join others for one or more of these sabbats, or they may do their own ritual. </p>
<h2>Yule rituals</h2>
<p>I have always found the group rituals I have attended for Yule, as part of my research, to be joyous occasions. </p>
<p>As with all Wiccan rituals, participants gather in a circle. Those leading the ritual sanctify the space by walking around the circle chanting and sprinkling salt and water. This is followed by representations of the four elements – water, fire, air and earth. Often, a candle is lit to denote fire, a shell to represent water, a feather for air, and a crystal for earth. </p>
<p>Divinities or spirits are called into the circle to help with the ritual. There is always a reading or meditation <a href="https://uscpress.com/Search?q=A+community+of+Witches">related to the holiday and the changes that are occurring</a> in the natural world at that season. </p>
<p>At Yule there is always a fire or lights to symbolize the returning sun. In one outdoor ritual I attended, a bonfire was built in a clearing in the woods. The night was cold and dark, and there was snow on the ground. The circle was formed around the fire. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large number of people gathered around a big bonfire in the woods." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/563758/original/file-20231205-23-25zbmn.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>
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<span class="caption">Bonfires can be built at Yule in the clearing of the woods.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/people-celebration-around-big-huge-traditional-fire-royalty-free-image/922771128?phrase=winter+solstice+fire&adppopup=true">Drepicter/iStock via Getty images plus</a></span>
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<p>However, most of the rituals I have attended, particularly for Yule, are indoors, and fires are made in cauldrons, or by lighting candles. However, at one large ritual I attended, <a href="https://uscpress.com/Search?q=A+community+of+Witches">there was a large, bright, yellow-and-orange paper mache image of the sun</a> on a long stick. </p>
<p>All of the attendees were asked to wear shiny clothing. Some people had glitter in their hair and on their face; some wore golden or silver clothing; the room and the people glowed with light and sparkles. At other rituals I have attended, people were asked to bring a small candle or light. In all instances the participants are symbolically part of the returning light, either by carrying a light or, in this one ritual, reflecting the room light. </p>
<p>The reading or meditation at Yule rituals normally includes reference to the darkness of winter that people experience around this time of year. </p>
<h2>Light during darkest time</h2>
<p>The rituals normally end with dancing and chanting. At the ritual in which there was a large representation of the sun, all the participants danced joyously behind the person carrying the sun, chanting about the sun returning. </p>
<p>The ritual I attended in the forest ended with everyone dancing around the fire before making sure it was completely put out. We then turned on our flashlights and found our way in the dark out of the woods. </p>
<p>The juxtaposition of the celebration of the returning sun and having the time and inclination for reflection during a dark and cold time makes this an interesting holiday.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218779/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>Yule, celebrated by Wiccans and many other Pagans in the Northern Hemisphere on Dec. 21, the day of the winter solstice, is a time for reflection.Helen A. Berger, Affliated Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag: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>
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<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>
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<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>
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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>
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<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>
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<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>
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<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>
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<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>
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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/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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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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<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>
<hr>
<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">
<figcaption>
<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>
<hr>
<p>
<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>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<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">
<figcaption>
<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>
</figcaption>
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<hr>
<p>
<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>
<hr>
<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/1961862022-12-19T13:36:14Z2022-12-19T13:36:14Z5 wintry books to read during long nights<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501588/original/file-20221216-20-9ln2hr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C3%2C703%2C675&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Walden Pond was Thoreau's sometimes chilly muse.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/leaf-in-ice-at-walden-pond-news-photo/120004362?adppopup=true">Lane Turner for The Boston Globe/via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Winter solstice brings the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It’s a great night to spend reading.</p>
<p>I’ve taught English and creative writing in snowy Binghamton, New York, for more than 40 years – <a href="https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C22&q=Liz+Rosenberg&btnG=">reading, writing, reviewing and judging books all the while</a> – so it’s never hard for me to find something to read. Only to choose. </p>
<p>To save you the same indecision, I’ve picked five books for the darkest time of the year.</p>
<h2>1. Henry David Thoreau, “<a href="https://worldcat.org/en/title/1345585403">Walden Pond</a>” (1854)</h2>
<p>Thoreau’s “Walden Pond” is America’s most celebrated nature book, filled with the author’s observations of the woods near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. “Walden” begins in July, but Thoreau welcomes winter in some of the book’s most beautiful passages.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="Black and white illustration of a small cabin surrounded by tall pines" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501144/original/file-20221214-14156-hnc795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501144/original/file-20221214-14156-hnc795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501144/original/file-20221214-14156-hnc795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501144/original/file-20221214-14156-hnc795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501144/original/file-20221214-14156-hnc795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501144/original/file-20221214-14156-hnc795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501144/original/file-20221214-14156-hnc795.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thoreau’s cabin on the edge of Walden Pond cost US$28.12 in building materials when built in the early 1850s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/henry-thoreau-s-cabin-at-walden-pond-massachusetts-american-news-photo/171212802?phrase=Thoreau%20cabin&adppopup=true">Culture Club/via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“The north wind had already begun to cool the pond,” Thoreau writes, when he “went into winter quarters.” Not that he stayed indoors much.</p>
<p>Most of us won’t stretch out face down “on ice only an inch thick,” as Thoreau reports doing, but we can read about him doing it while staying warm. Thoreau noticed frozen bubbles, stacked “like a string of beads” or “silvery coins poured from a bag.” He catalogs – how he loves cataloging! – the colors of the pond, from “transparent” to dark green to “opaque and whitish or gray.” In winter he burned pine, decaying stumps, hickory, dry leaves and logs he’d dragged home while skating across the pond. Fuel provided him warmth, cooked food and company. “You can always see a face in the fire,” Thoreau wrote. </p>
<p>In winter he welcomed rare humans, such as fellow writer Louisa May Alcott’s father, Bronson. But mostly he encountered foxes, squirrels, chickadees, jays and a barred owl that he described as the “winged brother of the cat.” Thoreau delights in the sound of the ice booming in a thaw and describes moonlit rescues of hikers he escorted back to the edge of civilization. </p>
<p>The five chilly chapters of “Walden” comprise a winter sampler for those who haven’t read this mighty book — and for those returning to it.</p>
<h2>2. Robert Frost, “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/2538570">The Poetry of Robert Frost</a>”</h2>
<p>No poet sang of winter like poet laureate and New Englander Robert Frost. In his great “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” he pays homage to winter’s solitude: </p>
<p>“Between the woods and frozen lake/The darkest evening of the year.” </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/2538570">The Poetry of Robert Frost</a>” weighs in at more than 600 pages. “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/12036745">You Come Too</a>,” a beautifully curated edition of poems for the young, is less than 100. </p>
<p>Both books contain popular midwinter favorites. Even their titles suggest the poet’s strong connection to winter: “Looking for a Sunset Bird in Winter”; “A Hillside Thaw” (“Ten million silver lizards out of snow!”); “Good-by and Keep Cold”; “A Patch of Old Snow.” </p>
<p>In “Birches,” Frost writes of branches that turn raindrops into ice crystals melted by sunlight.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust –</p>
<p>Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away</p>
<p>You’d think the inner dome of heaven has fallen.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Frost’s poems are easily memorized and lovely to read aloud over any blustering gales. </p>
<h2>3. Dylan Thomas, “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/966631968">A Child’s Christmas in Wales</a>” (1952)</h2>
<p>As Frost wrote for all ages, so did Dylan Thomas in “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” – available in its original Tiffany blue New Directions paperback edition, decorated exquisitely with illustrations by Ellen Raskin – a winter’s poem made to be sung. We can even hear the poet chanting it aloud on <a href="https://www.learnoutloud.com/Catalog/Literature/European-Classics/A-Childs-Christmas-in-Wales/146">his 1952 recording</a>.</p>
<p>One need not be Welsh to love Thomas’ seaside childhood. One need not even celebrate Christmas. </p>
<p>“One Christmas was so much like another,” the poem opens, “that I can never remember whether it snowed/for six days and six nights when I was 12/or whether it snowed for 12 days and/12 nights when I was six.” </p>
<h2>4. Italo Calvino, “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/1051073902">If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler</a>” (1979)</h2>
<p>Italo Calvino bundles magic, metafiction, philosophy, danger and love into “If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler.” It’s Calvino’s most mystifying work, challenging readers’ assumptions about reading and storytelling.</p>
<p>Not exactly a novel, it comprises the first chapter of 10 invented novels by 10 imaginary authors. Is it still winter? a reader may wonder. Was it ever winter? </p>
<p>As Calvino admits, “The only truth I can write is that of the instant I am living.” </p>
<h2>5. James Fenton, “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/48122710">A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seeds</a>” (2002)</h2>
<p>Some gardeners spend all winter dreaming. Others spend it busily planning. </p>
<p>“A Garden from a Hundred Packets of Seeds” proposes a radically old-fashioned approach – to grow a garden simply sprung from seed. Author James Fenton explains, “[S]imple-mindedness was a part of what I was after: buy a packet of nasturtium seeds and plant them, grow some very tall sunflowers – this is what gardening should be all about.” </p>
<p>A garden doesn’t need expensive starter plants or even a plan. The great question in life, as well as with gardens, is: What do I want to grow? </p>
<hr>
<p>Winter unearths simplicity – the stark black-and-white vista it presents, the bare-boned landscape. It encourages readers to follow suit by ridding themselves of the extraneous and making room for life. As the celebrated saying goes, “If you choose not to find joy in the snow, you will have less joy in your life but the same amount of snow.” </p>
<p>Besides, as December ends, we turn the corner toward light. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501149/original/file-20221214-14133-5pwq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A row of soft brown pots with seedlings growing" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501149/original/file-20221214-14133-5pwq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501149/original/file-20221214-14133-5pwq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501149/original/file-20221214-14133-5pwq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501149/original/file-20221214-14133-5pwq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501149/original/file-20221214-14133-5pwq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501149/original/file-20221214-14133-5pwq8e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501149/original/file-20221214-14133-5pwq8e.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"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gardeners spend winter nights dreaming of green growing things.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/seedlings-planted-in-pots-and-labelled-royalty-free-image/1306011708?adppopup=true">Busybee-CR via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/196186/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Liz Rosenberg 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>A literature professor suggests some classic reads to curl up with when it is cold.Liz Rosenberg, Professor of English, General Literature and Rhetoric, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1956362022-12-15T13:06:28Z2022-12-15T13:06:28ZThe Christmas tree is a tradition older than Christmas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501156/original/file-20221214-14523-dblg4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=51%2C29%2C4868%2C3245&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public Christmas trees, like Rockefeller Center's famous tree, didn't start appearing in the U.S. until the 20th century. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/kellie-pickler-performs-during-the-86th-annual-rockefeller-news-photo/1074076560?phrase=rockefeller christmas tree&adppopup=true">Nicholas Hunt/WireImage via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Why, every Christmas, do so many people endure the mess of dried pine needles, the risk of a fire hazard and impossibly tangled strings of lights? </p>
<p>Strapping a fir tree to the hood of my car and worrying about the strength of the twine, I sometimes wonder if I should just buy an artificial tree and do away with all the hassle. Then <a href="https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/history/profile/troy-bickham/">my inner historian</a> scolds me – I have to remind myself that I’m taking part in one of the world’s oldest religious traditions.
To give up the tree would be to give up a ritual that predates Christmas itself.</p>
<h2>A symbol of life in a time of darkness</h2>
<p>Almost all agrarian societies independently venerated the Sun in their pantheon of gods at one time or another – there was the <a href="https://mythology.net/norse/norse-gods/sol/">Sol of the Norse</a>, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Huitzilopochtli">Aztec Huitzilopochtli</a>, the <a href="https://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Helios/helios.html">Greek Helios</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-summer-solstice-an-astronomer-explains-98270">The solstices</a>, when the Sun is at its highest and lowest points in the sky, were major events. The winter solstice, when the sky is its darkest, has been a notable day of celebration in agrarian societies throughout human history. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/dining/yalda-winter-solstice-pomegranate.html">The Persian Shab-e Yalda</a>, <a href="https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/holidays/dongzhi-festival.htm">Dongzhi in China</a> and the North American <a href="https://www.culturalworld.org/what-is-soyal.htm">Hopi Soyal</a> all independently mark the occasion. </p>
<p>The favored décor for ancient winter solstices? Evergreen plants. </p>
<p>Whether as <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/news/10992-221122-egypt-winter-solstice">palm branches gathered in Egypt</a> in the celebration of Ra or wreaths for the Roman feast of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-rome/saturnalia">Saturnalia</a>, evergreens have long served as symbols of the perseverance of life during the bleakness of winter, and the promise of the Sun’s return.</p>
<h2>Christmas slowly emerges</h2>
<p>Christmas came much later. The date was not fixed on liturgical calendars until centuries after Jesus’ birth, and the English word Christmas – an abbreviation of “Christ’s Mass” – <a href="https://www.oed.com/">would not appear</a> until over 1,000 years after the original event. </p>
<p>While Dec. 25 was ostensibly a Christian holiday, many Europeans simply carried over traditions from winter solstice celebrations, which were notoriously raucous affairs. For example, the 12 days of Christmas commemorated in the popular carol actually originated <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Yule-festival">in ancient Germanic Yule celebrations</a>.</p>
<p>The continued use of evergreens, most notably the Christmas tree, is the most visible remnant of those ancient solstice celebrations. Although Ernst Anschütz’s well-known 1824 carol dedicated to the tree is translated into English as “O Christmas Tree,” the title of the original German tune is simply “Tannenbaum,” meaning fir tree. There is no reference to Christmas in the carol, which Anschütz <a href="https://www.hymnsandcarolsofchristmas.com/Hymns_and_Carols/Notes_On_Carols/o_christmas_tree-notes.htm">based on a much older Silesian folk love song</a>. In keeping with old solstice celebrations, the song praises the tree’s faithful hardiness during the dark and cold winter.</p>
<h2>Bacchanal backlash</h2>
<p>Sixteenth-century German Protestants, eager to remove the iconography and relics of the Roman Catholic Church, gave the Christmas tree a huge boost when they used it to replace Nativity scenes. The religious reformer Martin Luther supposedly adopted the practice <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/first-christmas-tree">and added candles</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Engraving of adults and children gathered around a desk with a small Christmas tree adorned with candles." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501140/original/file-20221214-14523-pkk4by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501140/original/file-20221214-14523-pkk4by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501140/original/file-20221214-14523-pkk4by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501140/original/file-20221214-14523-pkk4by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=418&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501140/original/file-20221214-14523-pkk4by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501140/original/file-20221214-14523-pkk4by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501140/original/file-20221214-14523-pkk4by.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=525&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">German Protestants sought to replace ornate Nativity scenes with the simpler tree.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Martin_Luther%E2%80%99s_Christmas_Tree.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But a century later, the English Puritans frowned upon the disorderly holiday for lacking biblical legitimacy. <a href="https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/what-is-designation/heritage-highlights/did-oliver-cromwell-really-ban-christmas">They banned it in the 1650s</a>, with soldiers patrolling London’s streets looking for anyone daring to celebrate the day. Puritan colonists in Massachusetts <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-puritans-cracked-down-on-celebrating-christmas-151359">did the same</a>, fining “whosoever shall be found observing Christmas or the like, either by forbearing of labor, feasting, or any other way.”</p>
<p>German immigration to the American colonies ensured that the practice of trees would take root in the New World. Benjamin Franklin estimated that <a href="https://www.hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/germanstudentreading.pdf">at least one-third</a> of Pennsylvania’s white population was German before the American Revolution. </p>
<p>Yet, the German tradition of the Christmas tree blossomed in the United States largely due to Britain’s German royal lineage.</p>
<h2>Taking a cue from the queen</h2>
<p>Since 1701, English kings had been <a href="https://www.royal.uk/act-settlement-0#:%7E:text=The%20Act%20of%20Settlement%20of,succession%20for%20Mary%20II's%20heirs.">forbidden from becoming or marrying Catholics</a>. Germany, which was made up of a patchwork of kingdoms, had eligible Protestant princes and princesses to spare. Many British royals privately maintained the familiar custom of a Christmas tree, but Queen Victoria – <a href="https://victorianweb.org/history/victoria/4.html">who had a German mother as well as a German grandmother on her father’s side</a> – made the practice public and fashionable.</p>
<p>Victoria’s style of rule both reflected and shaped the outwardly stern, family-centered morality <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Victorian-era">that dominated middle-class life during the era</a>. In the 1840s, Christmas became the target of reformers like novelist Charles Dickens, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-charles-dickens-redeemed-the-spirit-of-christmas-52335">who sought to transform</a> the raucous celebrations of the largely sidelined holiday into a family day in which the people of the rapidly industrialized nation could relax, rejoice and give thanks.</p>
<p>His 1843 novella, “<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19337">A Christmas Carol</a>,” in which the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge found redemption by embracing Dickens’ prescriptions for the holiday, was a hit with the public. While the evergreen décor is evident in the hand-colored illustrations Dickens specially commissioned for the book, there are no Christmas trees in those pictures.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501135/original/file-20221214-13334-i3h3wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Drawing of royal family decorating a Christmas tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501135/original/file-20221214-13334-i3h3wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501135/original/file-20221214-13334-i3h3wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501135/original/file-20221214-13334-i3h3wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501135/original/file-20221214-13334-i3h3wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=766&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501135/original/file-20221214-13334-i3h3wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501135/original/file-20221214-13334-i3h3wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501135/original/file-20221214-13334-i3h3wu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=963&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">After the London Illustrated News published an image of Queen Victoria’s tree, the public eagerly sought to mimic the tradition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Christmas_Tree_1848.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Victoria added the fir tree to family celebrations five years later. Although Christmas trees had been part of private royal celebrations for decades, an 1848 issue of the London Illustrated News <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree#/media/File:Christmas_Tree_1848.jpg">depicted Victoria</a> with her German husband and children decorating one as a family at Windsor Castle. </p>
<p>The cultural impact was almost instantaneous. Christmas trees started appearing in homes throughout England, its colonies and the rest of the English-speaking world. Dickens followed with his short story “<a href="https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/67/dickens-christmas-stories/3952/a-christmas-tree">A Christmas Tree</a>” two years later. </p>
<h2>Adopting the tradition in America</h2>
<p>During this period, America’s middle classes generally embraced all things Victorian, from architecture to moral reform societies.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sarah-hale">Sarah Hale</a>, the author most famous for her children’s poem “Mary had a Little Lamb,” used her position as editor of the best-selling magazine <a href="https://www.clevelandart.org/research/in-the-library/collection-in-focus/godeys-ladys-book-1830-1898">Godey’s Ladies Book</a> to advance a reformist agenda that included the abolition of slavery and the creation of holidays that promoted pious family values. The adoption of Thanksgiving as a national holiday in 1863 <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-turkey-the-main-dish-on-thanksgiving-193702">was perhaps her most lasting achievement</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501142/original/file-20221214-14279-kp93jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Drawing of adults and children gathered around a decorated Christmas tree." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501142/original/file-20221214-14279-kp93jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501142/original/file-20221214-14279-kp93jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501142/original/file-20221214-14279-kp93jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501142/original/file-20221214-14279-kp93jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=907&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501142/original/file-20221214-14279-kp93jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501142/original/file-20221214-14279-kp93jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501142/original/file-20221214-14279-kp93jk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1140&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An engraving of Queen Victoria’s tree in Godey’s Ladies Book popularized Christmas trees in the U.S.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/The_Christmas_Tree_-_Godey%27s_Lady%27s_Book%2C_December_1850.jpg">Godey's Lady's Book</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is closely followed by the Christmas tree.</p>
<p>While trees sporadically adorned the homes of German immigrants in the U.S., it became a mainstream middle-class practice when, in 1850, Godey’s published <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_tree#/media/File:The_Christmas_Tree_-_Godey's_Lady's_Book,_December_1850.jpg">an engraving of Victoria and her Christmas tree</a>. A supporter of Dickens and the movement to reinvent Christmas, Hale helped to popularize the family Christmas tree across the pond.</p>
<p>Only in 1870 did the United States <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ulysses-s-grant-president-made-christmas-holiday-article-1.3714376">recognize Christmas as a federal holiday</a>. </p>
<p>The practice of erecting public Christmas trees emerged in the U.S. in the 20th century. In 1923, the first one appeared <a href="https://www.nps.gov/whho/learn/historyculture/national-christmas-tree-history.htm">on the White House’s South Lawn</a>. During the Great Depression, famous sites such as New York’s Rockefeller Center <a href="https://www.beamliving.com/stories/history-of-the-rockefeller-center-christmas-tree">began erecting increasingly larger trees</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Black and white photo of people gathered around a tall Christmas tree in Washington, D.C." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501145/original/file-20221214-14389-u73s9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/501145/original/file-20221214-14389-u73s9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501145/original/file-20221214-14389-u73s9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501145/original/file-20221214-14389-u73s9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=436&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501145/original/file-20221214-14389-u73s9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501145/original/file-20221214-14389-u73s9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/501145/original/file-20221214-14389-u73s9p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Christmas tree was erected on the White House South Lawn for the first time in 1923.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Community_Christmas_tree,_12-24-23_LCCN2016848489.jpg">Library of Congress</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Christmas trees go global</h2>
<p>As both American and British cultures extended their influence around the world, Christmas trees started to appear in communal spaces even in countries that are not predominately Christian. Shopping districts in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong and Tokyo <a href="https://www.timeout.com/tokyo/things-to-do/best-christmas-tree-displays-in-tokyo">now regularly erect trees</a>. </p>
<p>The modern Christmas tree is a universal symbol that carries meanings both religious and secular. Adorned with lights, they promote hope and offer brightness in literally the darkest time of year for half of the world. </p>
<p>In that sense, the modern Christmas tree has come full circle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195636/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Troy Bickham 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>Evergreens have long served as symbols of life during the bleakness of winter. But Queen Victoria spurred the tradition that has become a global phenomenon.Troy Bickham, Professor of History, Texas A&M 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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<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>
<figure>
<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/1739692021-12-17T13:27:38Z2021-12-17T13:27:38ZA Persian festival, Yalda, celebrates the triumph of light over darkness, with pomegranates, poetry and sacred rituals<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/438104/original/file-20211216-15-kg97wi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5955%2C3979&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A table set for the celebration of the Persian festival of Yalda.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/yalda-night-royalty-free-image/857441278?adppopup=true"> Jasmin Merdan/Moment via Getty images.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the days become shorter and the nights become longer and darker, we are reminded that indeed winter is coming. As a child I would dread this time of the year. Not only was there was less time to play outside, but there was a string of holidays that my Iranian family didn’t celebrate, from Hanukkah to Christmas, which made me feel I didn’t belong in our new home in Minneapolis, Minnesota.</p>
<p>At the age of 11, I asked my parents for a Christmas tree. That’s when my grandmother, Ghamarjoon, placed two pomegranates in my hands and two in my mother’s and introduced me to Shab-e-Yalda: “shab” meaning night, and “yalda” meaning birth or light. It is a holiday celebrated by millions of people from Iran to Azerbaijan to the U.S., on Dec. 21, the winter solstice. </p>
<p>My path to becoming an <a href="https://isearch.asu.edu/profile/3496796">anthropologist who studies rituals and traditions</a> in the Middle East was, in part, a way discover the stories of my past, and Yalda was one of my first inspirations. </p>
<h2>Celebrating light</h2>
<p>Originating in the pre-Zoroastrian tradition of worship of Mithra, the God of Sun, but popularized by Zoroastrians, Yalda, also referred to as Chelleh, celebrates the sunrise after the longest night of the year. Ancient Persians believed that evil forces <a href="http://journal.richt.ir/article-4-468-fa.html">were strongest</a> on the longest and darkest night of the year. People stayed up all night, telling stories and eating watermelon and pomegranate, in addition to dried fruit, in anticipation of the sun rising. </p>
<p>As the light spilled through the sky in the moment of dawn, Persians celebrated its appearance with drumming and dancing. It was thought that the <a href="http://journal.richt.ir/browse.php?a_id=468&sid=4&slc_lang=en">day after the longest night belonged</a> to <a href="https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Ahura_Mazda#:%7E:text=Ahura%20Mazda%20is%20the%20supreme,proto%2DIndo%2DIranian%20origin.">Ahura Mazda</a>, the Zoroastrian lord of wisdom.</p>
<p>Religious studies scholar Joel Wilbush argues that the early Christians <a href="https://www.proquest.com/openview/db28c05df2d86fe2a21e90d89a06883e/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=36810">loved this ancient Persian celebration</a>. They saw the themes of light, sun and birth as interconnected with the birth of Jesus.</p>
<h2>Triumph of light</h2>
<p>Today my family continues the tradition by gathering every year to celebrate this ancient tradition. Like our ancestors before us, we stay up all night, curled under a korsi, a special Persian blanket lined with lumps of coal for warmth. We tell stories, read the poetry of Iranian poets like Hafez and Rumi, and speak of the good that can overcome evil. </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><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/06/dining/yalda-winter-solstice-pomegranate.html">Foods such as pomegranate and watermelon</a> are still eaten. A food indigenous to Iran, pomegranate is believed to be a symbol of life and resilience, for it blossoms during the harshest climate of winter. Persians also believe that eating summer foods, such as watermelon, will keep the body healthy through the winter, and that dried seeds like pumpkin and sunflower are a reminder of the cycle of life – of the rebirth and renewal to come. </p>
<p>While Christmas and Yalda are celebrated just a few days apart, the celebrations hold similar traditions and values. Family, love, resilience, rebirth and a triumph of light over dark. </p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This piece has been updated to change the word equinox to the word solstice.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173969/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pardis Mahdavi 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>People stay up all night, telling stories and eating dried fruits, in addition to watermelon and pomegranate, to celebrate the sunrise soon after the longest night of the year.Pardis Mahdavi, Dean of Social Sciences, Arizona State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1522242020-12-18T13:26:06Z2020-12-18T13:26:06ZWhat you need to know about this year’s winter solstice and the great conjunction<p><em>Editor’s note: Dr. William Teets is the director of Vanderbilt University’s Dyer Observatory. In this interview, he explains what does and doesn’t happen during the winter solstice on Dec. 21. Another cosmic phenomenon is also going to occur on the same day called “<a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn/">the great conjunction</a>,” where Saturn and Jupiter, both of which can be seen with the naked eye, will appear extremely close to one another.</em></p>
<h2>What happens on the winter solstice?</h2>
<p>The winter solstice this year happens on Dec. 21. This is when the Sun appears the lowest in the Northern Hemisphere sky and is at its farthest southern point over Earth – directly over the Tropic of Capricorn. For folks living at 23.5 degrees south latitude, not only does this day mark their summer solstice, but they also see the Sun directly over them at local noon. After that, the Sun will start to creep back north again. </p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1401/sun_over_here_2.gif?1608652248"></p>
<p>The sequence of images below shows the path of the Sun through the sky at different times of the year. You can see how the Sun is highest in the Northern Hemisphere sky in June, lowest in December, and halfway in between these positions in March and September during the equinoxes.</p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1389/Comp_1.gif?1608247458"></p>
<h2>The winter solstice is the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere but not the day with the latest sunrise and earliest sunset. How is that possible?</h2>
<p>The winter solstice doesn’t coincide with the latest sunrise or the earliest sunset. Those actually occur about two weeks before and two weeks after the winter solstice. This is because we are changing our distance from the sun due to our elliptical, not circular, orbit, which changes the speed at which we orbit. </p>
<p>If you were to look at where the Sun is at exactly the same time of day over different days of the year, you would see that it’s not always in the same spot. Yes, the Sun is higher in the summer and lower in the winter, but it also moves from side to side of the average noontime position, which also plays a role in when the Sun rises and sets. </p>
<p>One should also keep in mind that the seasons are due to the Earth’s axial tilt, not our distance from the Sun. Believe it or not, we are closest to the Sun in January.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375778/original/file-20201217-23-sp6uaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Analemma of the sun over Callanish, Scotland." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375778/original/file-20201217-23-sp6uaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375778/original/file-20201217-23-sp6uaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375778/original/file-20201217-23-sp6uaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375778/original/file-20201217-23-sp6uaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=693&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375778/original/file-20201217-23-sp6uaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375778/original/file-20201217-23-sp6uaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375778/original/file-20201217-23-sp6uaa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=870&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 photograph of the position of the Sun, taken at the same time on different days throughout the year, shows a figure-eight pattern known as an analemma. This photo was taken in Callanish, Scotland.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap180923.html">Giuseppe Petricca, NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is ‘the great conjunction’?</h2>
<p><img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1387/travelling.gif?1608244561"></p>
<p>Saturn and Jupiter have appeared fairly close together in our sky throughout the year. But on Dec. 21, Saturn and Jupiter will appear so close together that some folks may have a difficult time seeing them as two objects. </p>
<p>If you have a pair of binoculars, you’ll easily be able to spot both planets. In even a small telescope, you’d see both planets at the same time in the same field of view, which is really unheard of. That’s what makes this conjunction so rare. Jupiter and Saturn appear to meet up about every 20 years. Most of the time, however, they’re not nearly as close together as we’re going to see them on Monday, Dec. 21. </p>
<p>For a comparison, there was a great conjunction back in 2000, but the two planets were separated by about two full-Moon widths. This year, the orbits will bring them to where they appear to be about one-fifth of a full-Moon diameter. </p>
<p><img src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1388/december.gif?1608244618"></p>
<p>We have been encouraging folks to go out and look at these planets using just their eyes between now and Dec. 21. You’ll actually be able to see how much they appear to move over the course of a single day. </p>
<p>The next time they will get this close together in our sky won’t be for another 60 years, so this is going to be a once-in-a-lifetime event for many people. In fact, the last time they got this close together was in the year <a href="https://whenthecurveslineup.com/2020/02/20/1623-the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn/">1623</a>, but it was really difficult, if not impossible, to see them then because they appeared much closer to the Sun and set soon after it. Go back another 400 years to <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/opinion/529835-the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn-the-dawn-of-a-new-era">1226</a> and this would have been the last time that we would have had a good view of this type of conjunction.</p>
<h2>What advice would you give to people who want to see the great conjunction?</h2>
<p>If weather permits at <a href="https://dyer.vanderbilt.edu/">Dyer Observatory</a>, we’ll be streaming a live view of the conjunction from one of the observatory’s telescopes, and I’ll be available to answer questions. Even if you don’t have a telescope or a pair of binoculars, definitely go out and check out this very rare alignment with your own eyes. Remember that they set soon after sunset, so be ready to view right at dusk!</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152224/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Teets 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 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.William Teets, Acting Director and Astronomer, Dyer Observatory, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1520672020-12-17T13:30:17Z2020-12-17T13:30:17ZAs heavenly bodies converge, many ask: Is the Star of Bethlehem making a comeback?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375429/original/file-20201216-19-1jwxdbf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=60%2C0%2C4963%2C3400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Nativity presentation showing the three wise men being led by the Star of Bethlehem.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-three-wise-men-arrive-with-their-gifts-of-gold-news-photo/898543876?adppopup=true">Steve Russell/Toronto Star via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Dec. 21, 2020, <a href="https://www.kdrv.com/content/news/Great-Conjunction-of-Jupiter-and-Saturn-will-be-the-closest-in-nearly-800-years-573393111.html#:%7E:text=%E2%80%93%20On%20the%20evening%20of%20the,planet%E2%80%9D%20in%20the%20night%20sky.&text=Aligning%20with%20the%20winter%20solstice,be%20the%20closest%20since%201623.">Jupiter and Saturn will cross paths in the night’s sky</a> and for a brief moment, they will appear to shine together as one body. While planetary conjunctions like this are not everyday events, they <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-great-conjunction-of-jupiter-and-saturn">also are not particularly rare</a>. </p>
<p>This year’s conjunction is different for at least two reasons. The first is the degree to which the two planets will be aligned. <a href="https://www.uml.edu/news/press-releases/2020/laycockpitch120920.aspx">Experts predict</a> that they will appear closer during this conjunction than they have in nearly eight centuries and also brighter. </p>
<p>But the second factor, and the one that has thrust this event into the spotlight, is that it will occur on the winter solstice, just before the Christmas holiday. The timing has <a href="https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/when-you-can-see-the-rare-christmas-star-in-the-night-sky-this-month/2393972/">led to a speculation</a> whether this could be the same astronomical event that the Bible reports led the wise men to Joseph, Mary and the newly born Jesus – the Star of Bethlehem.</p>
<p>As a <a href="https://vandeneykel.hcommons.org/curriculum-vitae/">scholar of early Christian literature</a> writing a book on the three wise men, I argue that the upcoming planetary conjunction is likely not the fabled Star of Bethlehem. The biblical story of the star is intended to convey theological rather than historical or astronomical truths.</p>
<h2>Leading light</h2>
<p>The story of the star has long fascinated readers, both <a href="https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004308473">ancient and modern</a>. Within the New Testament, it is found only in the Gospel of Matthew, a first-century account of Jesus’ life that begins with the story of his birth.</p>
<p>In this account, <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A2&version=NRSV">wise men arrive in Jerusalem and say to Herod</a>, the king of Judea: “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.” The <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A9&version=NRSV">star then leads them to Bethlehem</a> and stops over the house of Jesus and his family.</p>
<p>Many have read this story with the presupposition that Matthew must have been referencing an actual astronomical event that occurred around the time of Jesus’ birth. The astronomer <a href="https://www.michaelmolnar.com/">Michael R. Molnar</a>, for example, <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/the-star-of-bethlehem/9780813564715">has argued</a> that the Star of Bethlehem was an eclipse of Jupiter within the constellation Ares.</p>
<p>There are at least two issues involved in associating a specific event with Matthew’s star. The first is that scholars are not certain exactly when Jesus was born. The traditional date of his birth <a href="https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/when-was-jesus-born-bc-or-ad/">may be off by as many as six years</a>.</p>
<p>The second is that measurable, predictable astronomical events occur with relative frequency. The quest to discover which event, if any, Matthew might have had in mind is therefore a complicated one.</p>
<h2>Beliefs about the star</h2>
<p>The theory that the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn may be the Star of Bethlehem is not new. It was proposed in the early 17th century by <a href="https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005AcMPS..45..115H/abstract">Johannes Kepler</a>, a German astronomer and mathematician. Kepler argued that this same planetary conjunction in or around 6 B.C. could have served as inspiration for Matthew’s story of the star.</p>
<p>Kepler was not the first to suggest that the Star of Bethlehem may have been a recognizable astronomical event. Four hundred years prior to Kepler, between 1303 and 1305, the Italian artist Giotto painted the star as a comet on the walls of the <a href="http://www.cappelladegliscrovegni.it/index.php/en/">Scrovegni Chapel</a> in Padua, Italy.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/375433/original/file-20201216-17-1pls343.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=626&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Painting ‘Adoration of the Magi,’ by Giotto, showing the comet in Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Veneto, Italy.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/adoration-of-the-magi-by-giotto-detail-from-the-cycle-of-news-photo/170910688?adppopup=true">DEA / A. Dagli Orti/De Agostini via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-82971-0_1">Scholars have suggested</a> that Giotto did this as an homage to Halley’s Comet, <a href="http://cometography.com/pcomets/001p.html">which astronomers have determined</a> was visible in 1301, on one of its regular flights past the Earth. Astronomers have also determined that Halley’s Comet <a href="http://cometography.com/pcomets/001p.html">passed by the Earth in or around 12 B.C.</a>, between five and 10 years before most scholars argue that Jesus was born. It is possible that Giotto believed Matthew was referencing Halley’s Comet in his story of the star.</p>
<p>Attempts to discover the identity of Matthew’s star are often creative and insightful, but I would argue that they are also misguided.</p>
<p>The star in Matthew’s story may not be a “normal” natural phenomenon, and Matthew suggests as much in the way that he describes it. Matthew says that the wise men come to Jerusalem “from the East.” The star <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+2%3A9&version=NRSV">then leads them to Bethlehem</a>, south of Jerusalem. The star therefore makes a sharp left turn. And astronomers <a href="http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/2014/02/ada388004.shtml">will agree</a> that stars do not make sharp turns.</p>
<p>Moreover, when the wise men arrive in Bethlehem, the star is low enough in the sky to lead them to a specific house. As physicist <a href="https://draaronadair.com/">Aaron Adair</a> <a href="http://www.bibleinterp.com/articles/2014/02/ada388004.shtml">puts it</a>: “the Star is said to stop in place and hover over a particular lodging, acting as an ancient GPS unit.” The “description of the movements of the Star,” he noted, was “outside what is physically possible for any observable astronomical object.”</p>
<h2>Theological underpinning</h2>
<p>In short, there appears to be nothing “normal” or “natural” about the phenomenon that Matthew describes. Perhaps the point that Matthew is trying to make is a different one.</p>
<p>Matthew’s story of the star draws from a body of tradition in which stars are connected to rulers. The rising of a star signifies that a ruler has come to power. </p>
<p>In the biblical book of Numbers, for example, which dates to 5th century B.C., the prophet Balaam <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+24%3A17&version=NRSV">predicts the arrival</a> of a ruler who will defeat the enemies of Israel. “A star shall come out of Jacob, [meaning Israel]…it shall crush the borderlands of Moab.” </p>
<p>One of the most well-known examples of this tradition from antiquity is the so-called “Sidus Iulium,” or “Julian Star,” a comet that appeared a few months after the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. Roman authors Suetonius and Pliny the Elder report that the comet was so bright that it was visible in the late afternoon, and that <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/apa.2013.0010">many Romans interpreted the spectacle</a> as evidence that Julius Caesar was now a god.</p>
<p>In light of such traditions, I believe Matthew’s story of the star exists not to inform readers about a specific astronomical event, but to support claims that he is making about the character of Jesus.</p>
<p>Put another way, I argue that Matthew’s goal in telling this story is more theological than it is historical. </p>
<p>The upcoming conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is therefore likely not a return of the Star of Bethlehem, but Matthew would likely be pleased with the awe it inspires in those who anticipate it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/152067/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eric Vanden Eykel 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>A conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn is giving rise to speculations that it is the same astronomical event as the biblical Star of Bethlehem. An expert explains why it is not.Eric Vanden Eykel, Associate Professor of Religion, Ferrum CollegeLicensed 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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<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>
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<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/1090262018-12-20T12:28:31Z2018-12-20T12:28:31ZWinter solstice: the astronomy of Christmas<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251564/original/file-20181219-45419-lccubj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C280%2C1599%2C783&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Stonehenge sun</span> </figcaption></figure><p>From the Neolithic to present times, the amount of sunlight we see in a day has had a profound impact on human culture. We are fast approaching the winter solstice for the Northern hemisphere, which takes place on December 21. This is the longest night of the year – once celebrated as “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule">Yule</a>” by the pagan people of Northern Europe before it became Christmas. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/from-the-pyramids-to-stonehenge-were-prehistoric-people-astronomers-92901">Stonehenge</a> and the nearby Neolithic site of <a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/stonehenge-landscape/trails/durrington-walls-stonehenge-landscape-walk">Durrington Walls</a> (circa 2,500 BC) were each built to be orientated to face the midwinter sunset and sunrise respectively. This focus on the winter solstice was an important time <a href="http://blog.english-heritage.org.uk/stonehenge-midwinter-feasts/">marked by feasting</a> and possibly animal sacrifice. </p>
<p>Millennia later, the Romans celebrated Saturnalia (until the fourth century AD) – a festival over the week of the winter solstice <a href="https://www.historytoday.com/matt-salusbury/did-romans-invent-christmas">dedicated to the god Saturn</a>, involving games and merriment. The last day of Saturnalia was referred to as the “dies natalis solis invicti” (birthday of the unconquered sun) by the Romans, who celebrated it by giving gifts to each other on December 25. The pagan Anglo-Saxon event known as Yule was in full swing during the winter solstice a few centuries after that, eventually evolving into the festival we now know as Christmas. </p>
<h2>Tilting planet</h2>
<p>But what causes the winter solstice? Our planet has an axial tilt (of 23.4°) with respect to its orbital plane around the sun, which results in the seasons. The winter and summer solstices, and the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, are the extreme points in each of these seasons (see image). In winter, the Earth’s tilt away from the sun causes sunlight to be <a href="http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/s/seasons">spread out over a larger surface area</a> than in summer. It also causes the sun to rise later and set earlier, giving us fewer hours of sunlight and colder temperatures.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251546/original/file-20181219-45391-dr9mjr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251546/original/file-20181219-45391-dr9mjr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=229&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251546/original/file-20181219-45391-dr9mjr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=229&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251546/original/file-20181219-45391-dr9mjr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=229&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251546/original/file-20181219-45391-dr9mjr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251546/original/file-20181219-45391-dr9mjr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=288&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251546/original/file-20181219-45391-dr9mjr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=288&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"><span class="source">Meniou/Wikipedia</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As it happens, the direction of the Earth’s tilt changes over time. These variations have been known about since the time of the ancient Greeks. Hipparchus, one of the founders of modern astronomical techniques, wrote one of the <a href="http://www.astronomy.com/news/2005/01/hipparchuss-sky-catalog-found">first comprehensive star catalogues</a> in 129 BC. After compiling his catalogue, he noticed that the position of the stars had changed from those in much earlier records, such as the Babylonian. </p>
<p>Interestingly, the stars appeared to have moved position by the same amount, and he realised that the location of <a href="https://oneminuteastronomer.com/9905/celestial-equator-poles/">north</a> in the sky must have moved in the intervening centuries. Currently, our celestial north is marked by the position of the star <a href="https://earthsky.org/brightest-stars/polaris-the-present-day-north-star">Polaris</a>. But this was not always the case.</p>
<p>The rotation of a spinning object, like the Earth, can be affected by external forces. Given that the Earth is already spinning, any force applied to it, such as gravity from the moon or other bodies in the solar system, will modify this rotation (known as torque). The result on Earth is called the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/precession-of-the-equinoxes">precession of the equinoxes</a> – a phenomenon which affects our observations of the stars. A visible example of this on a smaller scale is shown several times during the film <a href="https://gph.is/1syOaQ3">Inception</a>, where the precession of a spinning top was used to determine whether the main character was in reality, or still dreaming. </p>
<p>For the Earth, this precession traces out a circle on the sky once every 26,000 years (see image below). In 3,000 BC, the celestial north was the star Alpha Draconis (Thuban), in the constellation Draco. Given that we can predict this motion, we know that 13,000 years from now our north star will be Vega, in the constellation Lyrae.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251489/original/file-20181219-45419-1jxvk7t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/251489/original/file-20181219-45419-1jxvk7t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251489/original/file-20181219-45419-1jxvk7t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251489/original/file-20181219-45419-1jxvk7t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=303&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251489/original/file-20181219-45419-1jxvk7t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251489/original/file-20181219-45419-1jxvk7t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=381&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/251489/original/file-20181219-45419-1jxvk7t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=381&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"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This also affects the onset of the seasons over the length of a year as part of this 26,000 year cycle, and therefore has important implications for anyone attempting to attribute any cultural significance to a particular point in a given season. The time it takes for the Earth to orbit the sun is approximately 365.25 days, meaning we have an extra day every four years. By comparison, the precession of the equinoxes results in about 20 minutes of difference between the Earth’s orbital period when measured against the fixed background stars (<a href="http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/distance/exploring/course/content/module1/">a sidereal year</a>), and the time it takes for the sun to appear to return to the same position in the sky each year (a solar year). </p>
<p>As a historical aside, it was the discrepancy between the length of the solar year and the length of a year as defined by the <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/julian-calendar.html">Julian calendar</a> that prompted the conversion to the presently used <a href="https://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/gregorian-calendar.html">Gregorian calendar</a>. The precession of the equinoxes was known about and had caused a discrepancy of a few days which prompted the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Council_of_Nicaea">council of Nicaea </a> to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/25105305?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents">change our calendar system</a>. </p>
<p>Under the Julian calendar, originally established by the Romans in 46 BC, New Year’s day in England used to be on March 25, and this was also used to define the start of the tax year. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar in 1752 <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-uk-tax-year-begins-on-april-6-its-a-very-strange-tale-57247">shifted the date of the tax year</a> forward by 11 days, but set New Year’s to January 1. However, to avoid 11 days of lost tax revenue, the government of that time set our tax year <a href="https://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/Give-us-our-eleven-days/">to begin on April 6</a> where it remains to this day.</p>
<p>So, given that there are 1,440 minutes in a day, and a difference of 20 minutes between the sidereal and solar years, then over a period of 72 years the dates of the equinoxes (and the solstices) would shift backwards in the calendar by a full day, if they were not corrected for (which they are). That means a Roman using the winter solstice as a reference point for the timing of Christmas would have been celebrating Christmas near the end of our November. Even further back, the builders of Stonehenge would have experienced the winter solstice in our September.</p>
<h2>Christmas on Mars</h2>
<p>The winter solstice has clearly been important historically, but what about the future? Perhaps in a few hundred years, humans settlers will be celebrating Christmas on Mars. The planet Mars also has an axial tilt (25.2°), and hence seasons like we do. Mars also experiences a precession of the equinoxes, but the precession period is less stable than Earth’s. One full Martian precession is approximately <a href="https://www.aanda.org/articles/aa/full/2002/11/aah2799/node3.html#SECTION00033000000000000000">167,000 years</a>.</p>
<p>The northern hemisphere winter solstice on Mars has only just passed, occurring on October 16. Because a sidereal year on Mars is 687 Earth days, the next Martian northern hemisphere winter solstice will not occur until September 2, 2020.</p>
<p>This means that any future Mars colonists who wish to recreate the winter solstice “festivities” at Durrington Walls thousands of years ago or, perhaps, just marking Christmas, would have to get used to celebrating in different Martian seasons almost every year.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/109026/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>If we didn’t correct for gravitational effects on the Earth’s orbit, the winter solstice would shift backwards by a day every 72 years.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/702502016-12-20T01:28:51Z2016-12-20T01:28:51ZA sacred light in the darkness: Winter solstice illuminations at Spanish missions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150204/original/image-20161214-2529-1uyk3ci.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The 2007 midwinter solstice illumination of the main altar tabernacle of Old Mission San Juan Bautista, California.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Rubén G. Mendoza/Ancient Editions</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On Saturday, Dec. 21, nations in the Northern Hemisphere will mark the winter solstice – the shortest day and longest night of the year. For thousands of years people have marked this event with rituals and celebrations to signal the rebirth of the sun and its victory over darkness.</p>
<p>At hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of missions stretching from northern California to Peru, the winter solstice sun triggers an extraordinarily rare and fascinating event – something that I discovered by accident and first documented in one California church more than 20 years ago. </p>
<p>At dawn on Dec. 21, a sunbeam enters each of these churches and bathes an important religious object, altar, crucifix or saint’s statue in brilliant light. On the darkest day of the year, these illuminations conveyed to native converts the rebirth of light, life and hope in the coming of the Messiah. Largely unknown for centuries, this recent discovery has sparked international interest in both religious and scientific circles. At missions that are documented illumination sites, congregants and Amerindian descendants now gather to honor the sun in the church on the holiest days of the Catholic liturgy with songs, chants and drumming.</p>
<p>I have since trekked vast stretches of the U.S. Southwest, Mexico and Central America to document astronomically and liturgically significant solar illuminations in mission churches. These events offer us insights into archaeology, cosmology and Spanish colonial history. As our own December holidays approach, they demonstrate the power of our instincts to guide us through the darkness toward the light.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" 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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Winter solstice illumination of the main altar tabernacle of the Spanish Royal Presidio Chapel, Santa Barbara, California. The author first documented this solar illumination of the altar in 2004.</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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Spreading the Catholic faith</h2>
<p>The 21 California missions were established between 1769 and 1823 by Spanish Franciscans, based in Mexico City, to convert Native Americans to Catholicism. Each mission was a self-sufficient settlement with multiple buildings, including living quarters, storerooms, kitchens, workshops and a church. Native converts provided the labor to build each mission complex, supervised by Spanish friars. The friars then conducted masses at the churches for indigenous communities, sometimes in their native languages. </p>
<p>Spanish friars like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ger%C3%B3nimo_Boscana">Fray Gerónimo Boscana</a> also documented indigenous cosmologies and beliefs. <a href="http://www.sacred-texts.com/nam/ca/bosc/">Boscana’s account</a> of his time as a friar describes California Indians’ belief in a supreme deity who was known to the peoples of Mission San Juan Capistrano as Chinigchinich or Quaoar. </p>
<p>As a culture hero, Indian converts identified Chinigchinich with Jesus during the Mission period. His appearance among Takic-speaking peoples coincides with the death of Wiyot, the primeval tyrant of the first peoples, whose murder introduced death into the world. And it was the creator of night who conjured the first tribes and languages, and in so doing, gave birth to the world of light and life. </p>
<p>Hunting and gathering peoples and farmers throughout the Americas recorded the transit of the solstice sun in both rock art and legend. California Indians counted the phases of the moon and the dawning of both the equinox and solstice suns in order to anticipate seasonally available wild plants and animals. For agricultural peoples, counting days between the solstice and equinox was all-important to scheduling the planting and harvesting of crops. In this way, the light of the sun was identified with plant growth, the creator and thereby the giver of life.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150558/original/image-20161216-26093-34shn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150558/original/image-20161216-26093-34shn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150558/original/image-20161216-26093-34shn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150558/original/image-20161216-26093-34shn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150558/original/image-20161216-26093-34shn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150558/original/image-20161216-26093-34shn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150558/original/image-20161216-26093-34shn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150558/original/image-20161216-26093-34shn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&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 horse and mule trail known as El Camino Real as of 1821 and the locations of the 21 Franciscan missions in Alta California (click to zoom).</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_missions_in_California#/media/File:SpanishMissionsinCA.png">Shruti Mukhtyar/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Discovering illuminations</h2>
<p>I first witnessed an illumination in the church at <a href="http://www.missionscalifornia.com/keyfacts/san-juan-bautista.html">Mission San Juan Bautista</a>, which straddles the great San Andreas Fault and was founded in 1797. The mission is also located a half-hour drive from the high-tech machinations of San Jose and the Silicon Valley. Fittingly, visiting the Old Mission on a fourth grade field trip many years earlier sparked my interest in archaeology and the history and heritage of my American Indian forebears.</p>
<p>On Dec. 12, 1997, the parish priest at San Juan Bautista informed me that he had observed a spectacular solar illumination of a portion of the main altar in the mission church. A group of pilgrims observing the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe had asked to be admitted to the church early that morning. When the pastor entered the sanctuary, he saw an intense shaft of light traversing the length of the church and illuminating the east half of the altar. I was intrigued, but at the time I was studying the mission’s architectural history and assumed that this episode was unrelated to my work. After all, I thought, windows project light into the darkened sanctuaries of the church throughout the year. </p>
<p>One year later, I returned to San Juan Bautista on the same day, again early in the morning. An intensely brilliant shaft of light entered the church through a window at the center of the facade and reached to the altar, illuminating a banner depicting the Virgin of Guadalupe on her Feast Day in an unusual rectangle of light. As I stood in the shaft of light and looked back at the sun framed at the epicenter of the window, I couldn’t help but feel what many describe when, in the course of a near death experience, they see the light of the great beyond.</p>
<p>Only afterward did I connect this experience to the church’s unusual orientation, on a bearing of 122 degrees east of north – three degrees offset from the mission quadrangle’s otherwise square footprint. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/197124/Sacrament_of_the_Sun_Eschatological_Architecture_and_Solar_Geometry_in_a_California_Mission">Documentation in subsequent years</a> made it clear that the building’s positioning was not random. The Mutsun Indians of the mission had once revered and feared the dawning of the winter solstice sun. At this time, they and other groups held raucous ceremonies that were intended to make possible the resurrection of the dying winter sun.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150546/original/image-20161216-26107-139zfck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150546/original/image-20161216-26107-139zfck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150546/original/image-20161216-26107-139zfck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150546/original/image-20161216-26107-139zfck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150546/original/image-20161216-26107-139zfck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150546/original/image-20161216-26107-139zfck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150546/original/image-20161216-26107-139zfck.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=583&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Plan of Mission San Juan Bautista showing the church’s off-square orientation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.missionscalifornia.com/category/missions/san-juan-bautista">California Missions Resource Center</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Several years later, while I was working on an archaeological investigation at Mission San Carlos Borromeo in Carmel, I realized that the church at this site also was skewed off kilter from the square quadrangle around it – in this case, about 12 degrees. I eventually confirmed that the church was aligned to illuminate during the midsummer solstice, which occurs on June 21.</p>
<p>Next I initiated a <a href="http://solsticechronicles.org/">statewide survey</a> of the California mission sites. The first steps were to review the floor plans of the latest church structures on record, analyze historic maps and conduct field surveys of all 21 missions to identify trajectories of light at each site. Next we established the azimuth so as to determine whether each church building was oriented toward astronomically significant events, using <a href="http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/index.php">sunrise and sunset data</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150771/original/image-20161219-24299-1j6p0or.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150771/original/image-20161219-24299-1j6p0or.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150771/original/image-20161219-24299-1j6p0or.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150771/original/image-20161219-24299-1j6p0or.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150771/original/image-20161219-24299-1j6p0or.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150771/original/image-20161219-24299-1j6p0or.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150771/original/image-20161219-24299-1j6p0or.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The azimuth angle is the compass bearing, relative to true (geographic) north, of a point on the horizon directly beneath an observed object such as a star or planet.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Azimuth_%28PSF%29_2.svg">Pearson Scott Foresman/Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This process revealed that 14 of the 21 California missions were sited to produce illuminations on solstices or equinoxes. We also <a href="http://digitalcommons.csumb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=sbgs_fac">showed</a> that the missions of San Miguel Arcángel and San José were oriented to illuminate on the Catholic Feast Days of Saint Francis of Assisi (Oct. 4) and Saint Joseph (March 19), respectively. </p>
<p>Soon thereafter, I found that 18 of the 22 mission churches of New Mexico were oriented to the all-important vernal or autumnal equinox, used by the Pueblo Indians to signal the agricultural season. My research now spans the American hemisphere, and recent findings by associates have extended the count of confirmed sites as far south as Lima, Peru. To date, I have identified some 60 illumination sites throughout the western United States, Mexico and South America.</p>
<h2>Melding light with faith</h2>
<p>It is striking to see how Franciscans were able to site and design structures that would produce illuminations, but an even more interesting question is why they did so. Amerindians, who previously worshiped the sun, identified Jesus with the sun. The friars reinforced this idea via teachings about the cristo helios, or “solar Christ” of early Roman Christianity. </p>
<p>Anthropologist <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/481801?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">Louise Burkhart’s studies</a> affirm the presence of the “Solar Christ” in indigenous understandings of Franciscan teachings. This conflation of indigenous cosmologies with the teachings of the early Church readily enabled the Franciscans to convert followers across the Americas. Moreover, calibrations of the movable feast days of Easter and Holy Week were anchored to the Hebrew Passover, or the crescent new moon closest to the vernal equinox. Proper observance of Easter and Christ’s martyrdom therefore <a href="http://www.infoplease.com/spot/movablefeasts1.html">depended on the Hebrew count of days</a>, which was identified with both the vernal equinox and the solstice calendar.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150559/original/image-20161216-26082-iro8gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/150559/original/image-20161216-26082-iro8gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150559/original/image-20161216-26082-iro8gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150559/original/image-20161216-26082-iro8gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=429&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150559/original/image-20161216-26082-iro8gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150559/original/image-20161216-26082-iro8gc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=539&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/150559/original/image-20161216-26082-iro8gc.jpg?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">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Schematic of the four successive solar illuminations of the saints of the main altar screen of Mission San Miguel Arcángel, California. Note illumination begins at the left with the Oct. 4 illumination of Saint Francis on his Feast Day. The author first identified and documented this solar array in 2003.</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>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Orienting mission churches to produce illuminations on the holiest days of the Catholic calendar gave native converts the sense that Jesus was manifest in the divine light. When the sun was positioned to shine on the church altar, neophytes saw its rays illuminate the ornately gilded tabernacle container, where Catholics believe that bread and wine are transformed into the body and blood of Christ. In effect, they beheld the apparition of the Solar Christ.</p>
<p>The winter solstice, coinciding with both the ancient Roman festival of Sol Invictus (unconquered sun) and the Christian birth of Christ, heralded the shortest and darkest time of the year. For the California Indian, it presaged fears of the impending death of the sun. At no time was the sun in the church more powerful than on that day each year, when the birth of Christ signaled the birth of hope and the coming of new light into the world.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rubén G. Mendoza has previously received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and was a charter board member of the California Missions Foundation. He is affiliated with the Archaeology Program of the Division of Social, Behavioral & Global Studies at CSU Monterey Bay. </span></em></p>At many Spanish missions in the US and Latin America, the rising sun illuminates the altar on the winter solstice or other symbolic days. To the faithful, these events meant that Christ was with them.Rubén G. Mendoza, Chair/Professor, Division of Social, Behavioral & Global Studies, California State University, Monterey BayLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.