Jaunted

Winter Travel / Winter Solstice / Holiday Travel / → All Tags

What Cities Will See The Least Daylight During Today's Winter Solstice?

Christmas and the nasty East Coast blizzards will likely overshadow today's Winter Solstice, the official kickoff to the season in the Northern Hemisphere. Not that many people would want to celebrate the day with the least amount of sunlight, but it could be worse; you could be in the Arctic Circle, which will see 24 hours of darkness today.

During the Winter Solstice, the sun's rays shoot directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn and are the farthest away from the Northern Hemisphere. That means that the Arctic Circle gets the shaft and will be the darkest place in the world. The parts of Alaska above the Arctic Circle also won't see the sun.

more ›

Winter Travel / Winter Solstice / → All Tags

Happy Winter Solstice Everybody!

It seems like only yesterday we were celebrating Mabon, but the time has now come to commemorate the winter solstice. Sunday morning marks the official start of winter, as the sun will be at its greatest angular distance from the Northern Hemisphere. For people like me, however, it also represents a hopeful, optimistic time, as it kicks off the official countdown to spring. Sure, the bulk of the cold weather is still ahead of us, but if we can just make it through tonight, we'll have survived the longest night of the year. Longer days and more sunshine are on the way.

People celebrate the milestone in various ways. In New York, fans of new age and spiritual music flock to the Cathedral of St. John the Divine for Paul Winter's annual Whole Earth Winter Solstice Celebration, an eclectic concert featuring music from the Gothic cathedral's impressive pipe organ as well as the rising of the "sun gong." Neo-druids and pagans make a pilgrimage to Stonehenge in England to watch the sun align perfectly through the stones, assuming the sun makes an appearance during this cloudy time of year. My Latvian relatives celebrate Ziemassvētki - the culmination of two weeks representing the "season of ghosts" - by burning candles and keeping a fire going in the fireplace to burn up any bad vibes accumulated during the previous year. I think that's pretty neat.

We don't have a fireplace, so instead we toasted the season with one-too-many martinis and some pizza from Sal's. And while we're paying the price right now, we're comforted by the thought that spring is just three months away.

[Photo: NASA]

Related Stories
· Winter Solstice Marks First Moment of Winter [citizen-times.com]
· Paul Winter's Whole Earth Winter Solstice Celebration [Official Site]
· Autumnal Equinox Travel: A Happy Mabon to All [Jaunted]