Winter solstice 2022 : Everything about shortest day of the year
Source : Social Media Image Credit : Getty Image
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 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.