Winter solstice 2022: What to know about the shortest day of the year

Whether the weather is wintry or not, the winter season will officially begin in the Northern Hemisphere this week on a day known as the winter solstice.

This year the winter solstice will take place at 4:48 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Dec. 21, according to EarthSky.org, marking the moment when the Earth’s Northern Hemisphere is at its maximum tilt away from the sun.

This makes the winter solstice the day of the year with the least amount of daylight, when the sun appears to travel its lowest arc across our sky, causing long, lanky shadows at noon. After the winter solstice, the daylight will gradually increase for the next six months until the summer solstice.

Conversely, for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere the summer solstice marks the day of the year when we are at our maximum tilt toward the sun, causing the sun’s trajectory across our sky to be at its highest point. Typically falling on or around June 21, it is the day with the most amount of daylight, and noontime shadows that are short. After the summer solstice, the daylight gradually wanes until we reach the winter solstice, the “shortest day” of the year.

In this way, the two solstices each year are like opposite swings of Mother Nature’s pendulum, signaling the brief pause when one cycle ends and another begins. Even the Latin roots of “solstice” hint at this natural rhythm, as the word is a combination of “sol” meaning sun and “sistere,” which means “to stand still,” Merriam-Webster says.

Because the sun played such an important role in early humanity’s timekeeping and spiritual traditions, many cultures held festivals and celebrations in honor of the winter solstice. Elements of our modern holiday traditions — candlelight, singing, gathering with friends and family — have their roots in these ancient observances that marked the long, dark night and welcomed the promise of the returning sun.

For example, according to the Farmers’ Almanac, in ancient Rome the winter solstice was celebrated as part of the Saturnalia festival that included banquets, gift giving and general merriment in honor of the Roman god of time, Saturn. And in Scandinavia and parts of Northern Europe, the wintertime feast of Juul cenetered on lighting fires — including the original Yule log — to symbolize the eventual return of the sun and to honor the god Thor.

The festival of Alban Arthan, Welsh for “Light of Winter,” considered winter solstice a time of death and rebirth, and of soul renewal. The prehistoric monument Newgrange in Ireland, built around 3200 B.C.E., was associated with this celebration and has features that align with the sun on mornings around the winter solstice.

However you choose to mark this day, know that the days will be getting just a little bit brighter from here on out until summer.

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