What is the Winter Solstice?
In ancient times, the Chinese people celebrated the Winter Solstice Festival (Dong Zhi) by visiting relatives and friends, in much the same way as the Chinese Lunar New Year. There is customary feasting, and businesses will close up for the day. Glutinous floor balls known as “tang yuan” are consumed as a symbol of family unity and harmony on this day.
But just what is the winter solstice?
A solstice is an astronomical term used when describing the day of the year when the sun is furthest from the equator. Two solstices exist, consisting of one solstice during the summer, which lengthens the day to the maximum, and another solstice during the winter, which shortens the day to the minimum during the year. Timing of these vary depending on which particular hemisphere you are focusing on.
Solstices happen when the earth turns away from the Sun at the greatest distance for that hemisphere. The earth orbits around the sun while, at the same time, rotating on its axis. The sideways turn results in one hemisphere being nearer the sun, bringing summer, but the other hemisphere is turned far away, bringing winter.
The word “solstice” finds its roots in the Latin term, “solstitium.” They created the term solstitium from sol which translates as the sun and stitium which translates as stop. The sun seems to do this during the solstice. It reaches nearly the exact elevation daily at 12:00 pm for a few days before and following the solstice.
The winter solstice for the northern hemisphere occurs on one of two dates: December 21st or 22nd every year and the sun will be shinning directly over the tropic of Capricorn. June 20th or 21st is the winter solstice for the southern hemisphere, which occurs when the sun is shinning directly over the tropic of Cancer.
The winter solstice is also known as the shortest day, because it marks the year’s shortest period of daylight and longest period of darkness. This is considered to be the midpoint of winter by many culture’s calendars. It is actually quite surprising that, in three thousand years, the date of the solstice has only shifted by one day.
Due to the fact that the sun seemed to be reborn as the days grew longer, a lot of ancient cultures naturally celebrated this time of rebirth as the winter solstice.
Today, festivals of light are still celebrated by some cultures. In addition to the Chinese Dong Zhi festival, the Germanic cultures celebrate Yule and Hindus celebrate Diwali, a festival of light.