The Winter Solstice of 2008
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Enjoy this last warm (not) day of Autumn. Tomorrow is Winter…Yippie (just kidding). The Winter Solstice 2008 is here at 5:04 AM Central Time (12:04 Universal Time). For those that don’t know what the Winter Solstice is, it is the point when our Sun appears the furthest South in the sky. This is our first day of Winter, the day when we have the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
For those South of the equator, it is also the longest day of the year. People in Australia are basking in the warm Sun as they are now enjoying their beautiful summer weather. Yep, our weather up here in the north is opposite to that of those in the South. Go figure…
Winter Solstice at Stonehenge
The best thing I like about the Winter Solstice, is that from that point on our days start getting longer and longer; which means more and more sun. Actually, we never had much sun up here this summer, so big deal. We had more cloudy days than I care to remember. But hey, I’ll welcome some extra vitamin D any day.
One thing about the Winter Solstice is that many cultures around the world consider it a time of rebirth as they get together for festivals and celebrations. These traditions have been going on for centuries.
Photo on left is by tarotastic
For those of you who are curious, the word strong>solstice comes from the Latin word “sol” which means sun. The word “sistere” means to stand still. For 2008 there will be 2 astronomical events like this. The winter solstice starts tomorrow on December 21st. On June 21st, we will celebrate our Summer Solstice. I can’t wait.
This astronomical event takes place two times each year. This years 2008 winter solstice is on December 21st and the 2009 summer solstice takes place on June 21.
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