A Conversation about Solstices

Here we are in the second week of Winter, according to the calendars.  Of course, the majority of us think this is about the middle of Winter. How come there’s such a difference of opinion? My theory is that the scientists are at fault. (And, before the purists jump in, I am aware that location makes a difference as to when we feel like it is winter. Let’s assume we are in the famed “Upstate NY”. ) Here’s the theory: From the beginning of humanity, people have been keen observers of the world around them… survival can depend on it. As civilization progressed, some of the wiser observers distinguished predictable patterns and learned the convenience of being able to predict seasons. Then humanity got more sophisticated and invented astronomy and calendars. People learned early to read the stars and make observations, so knowing the longest and shortest days wasn’t anything new, but it was useful.

Then the politicians and church leaders got into the act. Granted, a calendar is very useful for more than remembering birthdays. Seasons are important to farmers and priests alike. In fact, there is an inevitable mingling. Holidays and planting days should be predictable. In the Northern hemisphere (or Upstate) we experience actual seasons and changing day lengths. Early humans wanted explanations for this, and invented magic and religion for this purpose. The measured longest and shortest days became causes for celebration, symbolically explaining everything, and giving an excuse for big important celebrations.

The solstices happen because the earth “leans”, and the poles aren’t perpendicular, but at an angle to the sun. Half the year the northern hemisphere leans toward the sun and the other half the southern hemisphere leans toward it. This results in the shortest day or the longest day of the year happening about the middle of six months. So December 22 is the shortest day of the year at the North Pole and the longest at the South Pole. Fun fact… the sun doesn’t set at all in the polar regions on the longest days of the year. But it goes” down” for longer periods at the winter solstice and creates the long “polar night”  because the North Pole is tilted the furthest from the reach of the sun. This is less overwhelming the further south you go on the planet, as the tilt is less extreme. It’s funny that we talk about the motion of the sun, anyway, because it’s the earth that’s doing the moving!

Now, humans like science but don’t want to give up an excuse for a good celebration, so many holidays both religious and secular are timed around the solstice. I think we feel a need for a celebration of the shortest day of the year about to be followed by progressively longer days… an escape from the primal fear of the dark. Most religions of the Northern Hemisphere’s holiest days happen around the 21st or 22nd of December, when the world seems to be emerging from an enveloping darkness.

So, in a nutshell: winter solstice (the Latin translation describes this phenomenon as the sun “stopping” to reverse the trend of days getting shorter) marks the shortest day of the year; summer solstice marks the longest day of the year. In between the solstices are the equinoxes with equal night and day lengths. That means we get some kind of seasonal reason to party every three months or so. Happy New Year.