the Way of the Turtle

Winter Solstice
Sunday, December 21, 2008

Or what folks in the US often refer to as the first day of winter... the solstice occurs because of the tilt of the Earth's axis. As the Earth revolves around the Sun, that tilt changes in orientation to the Sun... with the solsitce occuring at the point where the northern hemisphere is tilted the furthest away from the Sun, resulting in the fewest hours of daylight for that particular day. The changing orientation of the Earth's axial tilt is also the reason for the changing seasons... when a hemisphere is tilted toward the Sun, sunlight is more concentrated and results in warmer temperatures (ie. summer) and when it's tilted away, the opposite occurs (ie. winter.) Here's a link to a nifty flash graphic from USA Today that demonstrates the effect.

From my point of view, the more important significance of the solstice is - from here on the number of hours of daylight increases, until 6 months from now in June on the summer solstice. Of course, it will be 6-8 weeks before the effect is sufficient to provide me with some remaining daylight for my post-workday workouts... but just knowing those days are on their way helps.

JMH