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 538,977 views ||||| Darren Staples / Reuters The Charnwood Grove of Druids gather for a public winter solstice ritual on Beacon Hill near Loughborough, Britain December 18, 2016. 
 
 In 2016, the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere will begin on Wednesday, December 21 at 5:44 EST. To calculate the turning point in your time zone, click here. 
 
 Officially the first day of winter, the winter solstice occurs when the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. This is the longest night of the year, meaning that despite the cold winter, the days get progressively longer after the winter solstice until the summer solstice in 2017. 
 
 The winter solstice is celebrated by many people around the world as the beginning of the return of the sun, and darkness turning into light. The Talmud recognizes the winter solstice as “Tekufat Tevet.” In China, the Dongzhi Festival is celebrated on the Winter Solstice by families getting together and eating special festive food. 
 
 Until the 16th century, the winter months were a time of famine in northern Europe. Most cattle were slaughtered so that they wouldn’t have to be fed during the winter, making the solstice a time when fresh meat was plentiful. Most celebrations of the winter solstice in Europe involved merriment and feasting. In pre-Christian Scandinavia, the Feast of Juul, or Yule, lasted for 12 days celebrating the rebirth of the sun and giving rise to the custom of burning a Yule log. 
 
 In ancient Rome, the winter solstice was celebrated at the Feast of Saturnalia, to honor Saturn, the god of agricultural bounty. Lasting about a week, Saturnalia was characterized by feasting, debauchery and gift-giving. With Emperor Constantine’s conversion to Christianity, many of these customs were later absorbed into Christmas celebrations. 
 
 Kieran Doherty / Reuters Revelers celebrate the winter solstice at Stonehenge on December 22, 2015. Stonehenge is a celebrated venue of festivities during the winter solstice - the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere - and it attracts thousands of revelers, spiritualists and tourists. Druids, a pagan religious order dating back to Celtic Britain, believe Stonehenge was a center of spiritualism more than 2,000 years ago. 
 
 One of the most famous celebrations of the winter solstice in the world today takes place in the ancient ruins of Stonehenge, England. Thousands of Druids and Pagans gather there to chant, dance and sing while waiting to see the spectacular sunrise. 
 
 Pagan author T. Thorn Coyle wrote in a 2012 HuffPost article that for many contemporary celebrants, solstices “are a chance to still ourselves inside, to behold the glory of the cosmos, and to take a breath with the Sacred.” In the Northern hemisphere, friends gather to celebrate the longest night. We may light candles, or dance around bonfires. We may share festive meals, or sing, or pray. Some of us tell stories and keep vigil as a way of making certain that the sun will rise again. Something in us needs to know that at the end of the longest night, there will be light. 
 
 In connecting with the natural world in a way that honors the sacred immanent in all things, we establish a resonance with the seasons. Ritual helps to shift our consciousness to reflect the outer world inside our inner landscape: the sun stands still within us, and time changes. After the longest night, we sing up the dawn. There is a rejoicing that, even in the darkest time, the sun is not vanquished. Sol Invictus — the Unconquered Sun — is seen once again, staining the horizon with the promise of hope and brilliance. This year the Circle Sanctuary, a prominent U.S. Pagan organization headed by Selena Fox, will observe Winter Solstice Eve with a celebration on Tuesday, December 20, complete with guided meditation and candlelight rituals. 
 
 Correction: Previous versions of this article incorrectly referenced a Nordic “sun god.” While the sun was venerated in pre-Christian Scandinavia, there’s no major tradition of a male sun deity in Norse mythology. ||||| On the winter solstice, the sun is at its southernmost point in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere. Here, the silhouette of Pagoda during sunset in Bangkok on the sunrise closest to the winter solstice, on Dec. 22, 2016. 
 
 The winter solstice is in full stride today (Dec. 21), which boasts the fewest hours of daylight for 2018 in the Northern Hemisphere. 
 
 Although the solstice gets an entire day of recognition, it happens in an instant: at 15:23 p.m. EST (10:23 p.m. GMT), when the North Pole is at its farthest tilt of 23.5 degrees away from the sun. This position leaves the North Pole beyond the sun's reach, and plunges it into total darkness, according to EarthSky.org. 
 
 In the Southern Hemisphere, the sun will shine directly overhead at Noon at exactly 23.5 degrees south of the equator, along the imaginary latitude line known as the Tropic of Capricorn, which runs through Australia, Chile, southern Brazil and northern South Africa. This is when when the sun appears to be at its southernmost point in the sky; as such, the Southern Hemisphere has its longest day of the year, and the Northern Hemisphere has its shortest day of the year, on the December solstice, according to EarthSky. [6 Ancient Tributes to the Winter Solstice] 
 
 At the moment of the solstice, the sun will also reach its southernmost point in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere. After that moment, the sun will stop moving southward and will begin its trek northward in the sky — hence the name "solstice," which means "sun stands still" in Latin, according to NASA. 
 
 After the winter solstice, the days will begin to get longer in the Northern Hemisphere. But that doesn't mean temperatures will increase immediately. Rather, northern midlatitudes will experience the winter chill partly, because they'll get about 9 hours of daylight in the weeks following the solstice, compared with the roughly 15 hours of daily sunlight they get around the summer solstice, Live Science reported in 2012. In addition, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun, making it colder. 
 
 In addition, even as the days get longer, the oceans, which moderate temperatures on land, need a vast amount of energy from the sun to heat up. 
 
 There are countless cultures that have recognized the winter solstice. The most famous is in Stonehenge in England. When the sun sets on the shortest day of the year, the sun's rays align with Stonehenge's central Altar stone and Slaughter stone, which may have had spiritual significance to the people who built the monument, Live Science reported in 2013. 
 
 Across the world in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, the ancient stonewalled Mayan city of Tulum also has a structure honoring the solstices. When the sun rises on the winter and summer solstices, its rays shine through a small hole at the top of one of the stone buildings, which creates a starburst effect. 
 
 Editor's note: This article was originally published Dec. 21, 2017. It was updated on Dec. 21, 2018. 
 
 Original article on Live Science. ||||| The winter solstice is upon us: Wednesday, December 21, will be the shortest day of 2016 for anyone living north of the equator (and Tuesday night was the longest night of the year). If pagan rituals are your thing, this is probably a big moment for you. If not, the official first day of winter is neat for other reasons, too. 
 
 Below is a short scientific guide to the solstice and the longest night of the year (though not, as we’ll see, the longest night in Earth’s history — that happened back in 1912). 
 
 1) Why do we have a winter solstice, anyway? 
 
 Most people know this one. Earth orbits around the sun on a tilted axis (likely because our planet collided with some other massive object billions of years ago, back when it was still being formed). 
 
 So between September and March, Earth’s Northern Hemisphere gets less exposure to direct sunlight over the course of a day. The rest of the year, the north gets more direct sunlight and the Southern Hemisphere gets less. It’s the reason for the seasons: 
 
 In the Northern Hemisphere, "peak" sunlight usually occurs on June 20, 21, or 22 of any given year. That’s the summer solstice. By contrast, the Southern Hemisphere reaches peak sunlight on December 21, 22, or 23 and the north hits peak darkness — that’s our winter solstice. 
 
 Technically speaking, the winter solstice occurs when the sun is directly overhead the Tropic of Capricorn, or 23.5° south latitude. Like so: 
 
 In 2016, the winter solstice will occur at exactly 5:54 am EST on Wednesday, December 21. 
 
 2) How many hours of sunlight will I get on Wednesday? 
 
 That depends on where you live. The further north you are, the less sunlight you’ll get during the solstice — and the longer the night will be. Alaska-based climatologist Brian Brettschneider created this terrific guide for the United States: 
 
 Washington DC will get about 9.5 hours of daylight — and 14.5 hours of glorious, glorious darkness. 
 
 On the off chance you live near the Arctic Circle, you’ll barely get any daylight during the solstice (if you live north of the circle, you’ll get none). The time lapse below shows the eerie scene in Fairbanks, Alaska, which only gets three hours of sunlight on the solstice — the sun basically skims the horizon for a a brief while and then vanishes: 
 
 Brettschneider has more charts on the solstice, including the differences in daylight between winter and summer solstices; his entire post is worth your time. 
 
 3) Is the winter solstice the earliest sunset of the year? 
 
 Not usually. Just because December 21 is the shortest day of the year for the Northern Hemisphere, it doesn’t mean every location has its earliest sunset or latest sunrise on that day. 
 
 Brettschneider also created this map showing earliest sunset/latest sunrise for different parts of North America: 
 
 If you live in Washington, DC, you missed the earliest sunset — it happened back on December 6. But you can still catch the latest sunrise on January 6. If you like sleeping in, that’s arguably the most exciting day of the winter. No annoying sun bothering you in the morning. 
 
 4) Is the winter solstice the coldest day of the year? 
 
 Also not usually! It’s true that the Northern Hemisphere gets the least direct sunlight on the winter solstice (which is officially the first day of winter). But the coldest months are yet to come — usually in January or February, depending on where you live. 
 
 A big reason for this “seasonal lag” is that the Earth’s massive oceans absorb much of the sun’s energy and release it slowly, over time. So there’s a delay between when there’s the least sun and when the air temperatures are actually coldest. The same thing happens in summer — there’s a delay between when solar insolation is at its maximum (the summer solstice in June) and when the hottest months are (usually July or August). 
 
 This seasonal lag varies greatly from place to place — during the summer, it’s pretty extreme in San Francisco, which is surrounded by water on three sides, and where temperatures don’t typically peak until September. Likewise, places distant from large bodies of water, like Iowa, can often see sharper swings in temperature than places like Rome that are surrounded by ocean. 
 
 5) What does all this have to do with Stonehenge? 
 
 No one knows for sure why Stonehenge was built some 5,000 years ago (at least I don’t, sorry). But one strong possibility is that it was used to mark solstices and equinoxes. That’s because the structure is directly aligned toward the sunset during the winter solstice. (The sun also rises directly over the Heel Stone during the summer solstice.) 
 
 Why was the winter solstice a big deal? Here’s Teresa Wilson of the American Astronomical Society to explain: “While the summer solstice draws a larger crowd, the winter solstice may have been more important to the ancient builders. At this time, cattle were slaughtered so the animals did not need to be fed through the winter, and wine and beer made previously had finally fermented.” 
 
 Nowadays, humans still gather to pay homage the winter solstice at Stonehenge — they just use modern technology, like so: 
 
 The Wikipedia entry on Stonehenge is absurdly detailed, so read up on that if you want more. 
 
 6) Was Tuesday the longest night in Earth’s entire history? 
 
 Probably not, although it's close. And the reason why is quite interesting. My colleague Joseph Stromberg did a fantastic deep dive into this topic a few years back, but here’s the two-minute version. 
 
 Ever since the Earth has had liquid oceans and a moon, its rotation has been gradually slowing over time due to tidal friction. That means — over very, very long periods of time — the days have been getting steadily longer. About 4.5 billion years ago, it took the Earth just six hours to complete one rotation. About 350 million years ago, it took 23 hours. Today, of course, it takes about 24 hours. And the days will gradually get longer still. 
 
 Given that, you'd think the winter solstice of 2016 would be the longest night in all of history. But while it's certainly up there, it doesn't quite take top honors. 
 
 That's because tidal friction isn’t the only thing affecting the Earth’s rotation — there are a few countervailing factors. The melting of glacial ice, which has been occurring since the end of the last Ice Age 12,000 years ago (and is now ramping up because of global warming) is actually speeding up Earth’s rotation very slightly, shortening the days by a few fractions of a millisecond. Likewise, geologic activity in the Earth’s core, earthquakes, ocean currents, and seasonal wind changes can also speed up or slow down the planet's rotation. 
 
 When you put all these factors together, scientists have estimated that the longest day in Earth’s history (so far) likely occurred back in 1912. That year’s summer solstice was the longest period of daylight the Northern Hemisphere has ever seen. And, conversely, the 1912 winter solstice was the longest night we’ve ever seen. 
 
 Eventually, the effects of tidal friction should overcome all those other factors and Earth’s days will get longer and longer as its rotation keeps slowing (forcing timekeepers to add leap seconds to the calendar periodically). Which means that in the future, there will be plenty of winter solstices that set new records as the "longest night in Earth's history." 
 
 7) I clicked this article accidentally and really just want a cool picture of the sun 
 
 I got you: 
 
 The image above was taken by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, a spacecraft launched in 2010 to better understand the sun. Caption: "A full-disk multiwavelength extreme ultraviolet image of the sun taken March 30, 2010. False colors trace different gas temperatures. Reds are relatively cool (about 60,000 Kelvin, or 107,540 F); blues and greens are hotter (greater than 1 million Kelvin, or 1,799,540 F)." 
 
 That star of ours is nothing to mess with. Here’s an in-depth piece I wrote about what happens when the sun erupts and sends space weather our way to wreak havoc on Earth. Happy solstice! ||||| View Images The rising sun aligns with structures at the Temple of Karnak in Luxor, Egypt, during the winter solstice, as seen on December 22, 2015. 
 
 Photograph by AFP, Getty Images 
 
 The Northern Hemisphere's procession of dwindling days is about to reach its nadir. The winter solstice is the year's shortest day, but the start of winter also launches the sun's steady climb toward the long, warm days of summer. 
 
 This year, the northern winter solstice occurs on Wednesday, December 21, at 5:44 a.m. ET (10:44 UTC). It happens at the same moment no matter where you live, but because we've divided Earth into 24 times zones, people around the world will observe it at 24 different times of day. 
 
 Why does the solstice occur anyway, and how have people observed it through history? Read on for everything you need to know about the December solstice. 
 
 Solstice From Space 
 
 Earth's tilt is the reason for the season. Our planet orbits the sun while tilted at an average of 23.5 degrees, so the Northern and Southern Hemispheres receive unequal amounts of sunlight. This causes both the solstices and the seasons. 
 
 Each hemisphere's cooler half of the year happens when it's tilted away from the sun, and its winter solstice (December in the north, June in the south) marks the point when that half of the globe is tilted away from the sun at its most extreme angle. 
 
 Lack of exposure to the sun's rays makes the winter solstice the darkest day of the year, but it's not the coldest. 
 
 That's still a month or more away, depending on your location, because oceans and landmasses are slow to lose the heat energy they absorbed during the warmer months. 
 
 Earliest Sunset? Not on the Solstice. 
 
 Most of us see the year's earliest sunset a week or two before the solstice. That’s because the sun and our human clocks don't keep exactly the same time. 
 
 We've organized our days into precise 24-hour segments, but Earth doesn't spin on its axis that precisely. So while the time from noon to noon is always exactly 24 hours, the time between solar noons, the moment each day when the sun reaches its highest peak, varies. As we move through the year, the chronological time of solar noon shifts seasonally—and so do each day's sunrises and sunsets. 
 
 During December, solar noons can be some 30 seconds longer than 24 hours apart. That means while the shortest amount of total daylight falls on the solstice, the day's sunset is actually a few minutes later on our clocks than it had been earlier in the month. 
 
 To see the earliest sunset coincide more closely with the solstice, simply head toward the Arctic, where the difference between the two dwindles. 
 
 Can I See the Solstice? 
 
 It is possible to see the effects of the solstice by noting what happens in the skies overhead, as well as the changes in sunlight over time. 
 
 The sun's arc across the sky has been steadily dropping lower and becoming shorter since June. At the northern winter solstice, it reaches its lowest possible arc—so low that in the few days surrounding the solstice, it appears to rise and set in the same place. That phenomenon produced the Latin phrasing from which the word “solstice” was derived, which means “sun stands still.” 
 
 The sun's low angle also means that your noontime shadow is the longest of the entire year during the winter solstice. 
 
 Ancient Solstice Sites 
 
 In the ancient world, people built a number of monuments to commemorate the solstice. One example is Newgrange, a huge Stone Age tomb mound built in the Irish countryside around 3200 B.C., or about a thousand years before Stonehenge. A tunnel facing the solstice sunrise runs to a main chamber, where the dead may have once been placed. A small window bathes the chamber in solstice light for 17 minutes. 
 
 View Images The Temple of Karnak is seen from above during sunrise. 
 
 Photograph by Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic Creative 
 
 The Paracas people of Peru, who lived around 800 to 100 B.C., crisscrossed the desert with lines of earth and rock called geoglyphs that connect ceremonial mounds with the place where the winter solstice sun sets on the horizon. The famed Nazca Lines—awe-inspiring monkeys, lizards, and other figures etched into the earth by a subsequent Peruvian culture around A.D. 1 to 700—also feature alignments with the winter solstice. 
 
 Ancient Egypt's sprawling Temple of Karnak was constructed in alignment with the winter solstice at Luxor more than 4,000 years ago. Similar alignments can be seen at Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Machu Picchu in Peru. 
 
 Christmas Connection? 
 
 For more than two billion Christians, the solstice has long been overshadowed by Christmas. But to historian David Gwynn of the University of London, the proximity of the two events may not be an accident. 
 
 According to Gwynn, one theory holds that Christmas was set on December 25 to replace a Roman holiday, which had roots in the pagan cult of Sol Invictus (“the unconquered sun”). 
 
 Other solstice traditions color today's winter holiday celebrations. Scandinavians once celebrated Juul, or Yule, a multiday feast marking the sun god's return. In Britain, Druids observed the solstice by cutting mistletoe. 
 
 And some ancient solstice celebrations continue in the present day. Iran's Yalda festival marks the day when Mithra, an angel of light, was thought to have been born. The tradition was adopted into Zoroastrianism and is still observed by staying up late and savoring treats like watermelon and pomegranate.
– The winter solstice is upon us, as of 5:44am EST, and as Wednesday is officially the shortest day of the year for everyone north of the equator, there's not much time to ruminate on an astronomical phenomenon we haven't seen since … well, last December. Here, the need-to-know (and fun-to-know) facts about the day, and its accompanying long night: Vox offers a handy map of how much sunlight North America can expect on Wednesday, depending on location. Most of the Sun Belt states can bask in their 9.5 to 10.5 hours of rays, while parts of Alaska will receive anywhere from seven hours to … none. A mesmerizing time-lapse video shows the somewhat freaky occurrence of the winter solstice in Fairbanks, Alaska, where the sun glides along the horizon for a grand total of three hours or so before once more dipping into oblivion. An explainer for the mechanics behind the solstice (including tilting angles and degrees) comes courtesy of Live Science. National Geographic explains why 2016's earliest sunset doesn't take place Wednesday, but actually earlier in December for most of us. It all comes down to how our clocks don't quite sync up with the Earth's. A walk back through winter solstices past is offered by the Huffington Post, which looks at pagan rituals of yesteryear and how they've morphed into modern-day ceremonies at places like Stonehenge. Don't forget to check out Wednesday's Google Doodle created just for the occasion. (Six years ago, a rare event in the sky coincided with the winter solstice.)