The winter solstice occurs during the hemisphere's winter. In the Northern Hemisphere, this is the December solstice (December 21 or 22) and in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the June solstice (June 20 or 21). Although the winter solstice itself lasts only a moment, the term also refers to the day on which it occurs. Traditionally, in many temperate regions, the winter solstice is seen as the middle of winter, "midwinter" is another name for the winter solstice, although it carries other meanings as well. Other names are the "extreme of winter", or the "shortest day".
Since prehistory, the winter solstice has been a significant time of year in many cultures and has been marked by festivals and rites.[8] This is because it is the point when the shortening of daylight hours is reversed and the daytime begins to lengthen again. In parts of Europe it was seen as the symbolic death and rebirth of the Sun. Some ancient monuments such as Newgrange, Stonehenge, and Cahokia Woodhenge are aligned with the sunrise or sunset on the winter solstice.
History and cultural significance
There is evidence that the winter solstice was deemed an important moment of the annual cycle for some cultures as far back as the Neolithic (New Stone Age). Astronomical events were often used to guide farming activities, such as the mating of animals, the sowing of crops and the monitoring of winter reserves of food. Livestock were slaughtered so they would not have to be fed during the winter, so it was almost the only time of year when a plentiful supply of fresh meat was available.[9]
The winter solstice is the reversal of the Sun's apparent ebbing in the sky; the daytime stops becoming shorter and begins to lengthen again. In parts of ancient Europe, this was symbolized as the death and rebirth of the Sun, or of a Sun god.[10][11][12]
Neolithic Europe
Sunlight entering the passage of Newgrange in Ireland on the winter solstice
Some important Neolithic and early Bronze Age archaeological sites in Europe are associated with the winter solstice, such as Stonehenge in England and Newgrange in Ireland. The primary axes of both of these monuments seem to have been carefully aligned on a sight-line pointing to the winter solstice sunrise (Newgrange) and the winter solstice sunset (Stonehenge). It is significant that at Stonehenge the Great Trilithon was oriented outwards from the middle of the monument, i.e. its smooth flat face was turned towards the midwinter Sun.[13]
Plutarch wrote in the Moralia (first century AD) that the Egyptians believed the goddess Isis gave birth to Harpocrates (Horus the Child) at the winter solstice.[15]Macrobius wrote in the fourth century that the Sun appears small at the winter solstice, and on this shortest day, the Egyptians brought a child Sun god out of a shrine.[16] In his Panarion, also from the fourth century, Epiphanius of Salamis wrote that the winter solstice was celebrated on 25 December in Alexandria as the Kikellia. Epiphanius says that thirteen days after the solstice, on 5–6 January, they celebrated the birth of Aion, son of the virgin goddess Kore. At the temple of Kore (the Koreion) in Alexandria, an all-night vigil was held, and at dawn an idol of the child god was brought out of an underground chapel. This idol was carried around the temple seven times, accompanied by music, hymns and revelry.[17][18]
Ancient Roman world
In the ancient Roman calendar, December 25 was the date of the winter solstice.[19][20]Marcus Terentius Varro wrote in the first century BC that this was regarded as the middle of winter.[21] In the same century, Ovid wrote in the Fasti that the winter solstice is the first day of the "new Sun".[22] The Calendar of Antiochus of Athens, c. second century AD, marks it as the "birthday of the Sun".[23] In AD 274, the emperor Aurelian made this the date of the festival Dies Natalis Solis Invicti, the birthday of Sol Invictus or the 'Invincible Sun'.[20][24] Gary Forsythe, Professor of Ancient History, says "This celebration would have formed a welcome addition to the seven-day period of the Saturnalia (December 17–23), Rome's most joyous holiday season since Republican times, characterized by parties, banquets, and exchanges of gifts".[20]
Liturgical historians generally accept that the winter solstice had some influence on the choice of December 25 as the date of Christmas.[25] A widely-held theory is that the Church chose it as Christ's birthday (Dies Natalis Christi) specifically to appropriate the Roman festival of the sun god's birthday (Dies Natalis Solis Invicti).[24][20][26] According to C. Philipp E. Nothaft, a professor at Trinity College Dublin, a historically Protestant University, though this "is nowadays used as the default explanation for the choice of 25 December as Christ's birthday, few advocates of this theory seem to be aware of how paltry the available evidence actually is".[27]
Neolithic site of Goseck circle in Germany. The yellow lines indicate the directions in which sunrise and sunset are seen on the day of the winter solstice.
Discussing the Heruli, the Greek historian Procopius wrote in the sixth century that the people of Scandinavia (which he calls Thule) held their greatest festival shortly after the winter solstice, to celebrate the return of daylight.[28]
In Anglo-Saxon England the winter solstice was generally deemed to be December 25, and in Old English, midwinter could mean both the winter solstice and Christmas.[29][30] In the eighth century, Bede wrote that the pagan Anglo-Saxons had celebrated the festival Mōdraniht ('Mothers' Night') at the winter solstice, which marked the start of the Anglo-Saxon year.[30]
The North Germanic peoples celebrated a winter holiday called Yule. The Heimskringla, written in the 13th century by the Icelander Snorri Sturluson, describes a Yule feast hosted by the Norwegian king Haakon the Good (c. 920–961). According to Snorri, the Christian Haakon had moved Yule from "midwinter" and aligned it with the Christian Christmas celebration. Historically, this has made some scholars believe that Yule originally was a sun festival on the winter solstice. Modern scholars generally do not believe this, as midwinter in medieval Iceland was a date about four weeks after the solstice.[31] During the Christianisation of the Germanic peoples, Yule was incorporated into the Christmas celebrations and the term and its cognates remain used to refer to Christmas in modern Northern European languages such as Swedish.
Albanian
Albanian traditional festivities around the winter solstice celebrate the return of the Sun (Dielli) for summer and the lengthening of the days.[32][33][34][35] The Albanian traditional rites during the winter solstice period are pagan, and very ancient. Albanologist Johann Georg von Hahn (1811 – 1869) reported that Christian clergy, during his time and before, have vigorously fought the pagan rites that were practiced by Albanians to celebrate this festivity, but without success.[36]
The old rites of this festivity were accompanied by collective fires (zjarre) based on the house, kinship or neighborhood, a practice performed in order to give strength to the Sun according to the old beliefs. The rites related to the cult of vegetation, which expressed the desire for increased production in agriculture and animal husbandry, were accompanied by animal sacrifices to the fire, lighting pine trees at night, luck divination tests with crackling in the fire or with coins in ritual bread, making and consuming ritual foods, performing various magical ritualistic actions in livestock, fields, vineyards and orchards, and so on.[36][37][38]
Nata e Buzmit, "Yule log's night", is celebrated between December 22 and January 6.[39] Buzmi is a ritualistic piece of wood (or several pieces of wood) that is put to burn in the fire (zjarri) of the hearth (vatër) on the night of a winter celebration that falls after the return of the Sun for summer (after the winter solstice), sometimes on the night of Kërshëndella on December 24 (Christmas Eve), sometimes on the night of kolendra, or sometimes on New Year's Day or on any other occasion aound the same period, a tradition that is originally related to the cult of the Sun.[40][37][38]
Japanese Sun goddess Amaterasu emerging from a cave (by Kunisada)Sunlight directed through the 17 arches of Seventeen Arch Bridge, Summer Palace, Beijing around winter solstice
Makara Sankranti, also known as Makara Sankrānti (Sanskrit: मकर संक्रांति) or Maghi, is a festival day in the Hindu calendar, in reference to deity Surya (sun). It is observed each year in January.[42] It marks the first day of Sun's transit into Makara (Capricorn), marking the end of the month with the winter solstice and the start of longer days.[42][43]
Iranian people celebrate the night of the Northern Hemisphere's winter solstice as, "Yalda night", which is known to be the "longest and darkest night of the year". Yalda night celebration, or as some call it "Shabe Chelleh" ("the 40th night"), is one of the oldest Iranian traditions that has been present in Persian culture from ancient times. In this night all the family gather together, usually at the house of the eldest, and celebrate it by eating, drinking and reciting poetry (esp. Hafez). Nuts, pomegranates and watermelons are particularly served during this festival.
When the First Man saw that the day was continuously shortening, he said, "Woe is me! Because I have sinned, the world darkens around me, and returns to formlessless and void. This is the death to which Heaven has sentenced me!" He decided to spend eight days in fasting and prayer. When he saw the winter solstice, and he saw that the day was continuously lengthening, he said, "It is the order of the world!" He went and feasted for eight days. The following year, he feasted for both. He established them in Heaven's name, but they established them in the name of idolatry[44]
Although the instant of the solstice can be calculated,[50] direct observation of the moment by visual perception is elusive. The Sun moves too slowly or appears to stand still (the meaning of "solstice"). However, by use of astronomical data tracking, the precise timing of its occurrence is now public knowledge. The precise instant of the solstice cannot be directly detected (by definition, people cannot observe that an object has stopped moving until it is later observed that it has not moved further from the preceding spot, or that it has moved in the opposite direction). To be precise to a single day, observers must be able to view a change in azimuth or elevation less than or equal to about 1/60 of the angular diameter of the Sun. Observing that it occurred within a two-day period is easier, requiring an observation precision of only about 1/16 of the angular diameter of the Sun. Thus, many observations are of the day of the solstice rather than the instant. This is often done by observing sunrise and sunset or using an astronomically aligned instrument that allows a ray of light to be cast on a certain point around that time. The earliest sunset and latest sunrise dates differ from winter solstice, however, and these depend on latitude, due to the variation in the solar day throughout the year caused by the Earth's elliptical orbit (see earliest and latest sunrise and sunset).
^Beck, Roger (2008). A Brief History of Ancient Astrology. Wiley. p. 57.
^Bradshaw, Paul (2011). The Origins of Feasts, Fasts and Seasons. Liturgical Press. p. 23.
^Roll, Susan (1995). Toward the Origins of Christmas. Kok Pharos Publishing. p. 120.
^O'Neill, William Matthew (1976). Time and the Calendars. Manchester University Press. p. 85.
^ abcdForsythe, Gary (2012). Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History. Routledge. pp. 113, 123, 141.
^Forsythe, Gary (2012). Time in Roman Religion: One Thousand Years of Religious History. Routledge. pp. 123, 182. Varro places the equinoxes and solstices at the midpoints of the seasons ... His dating for the beginnings of the four seasons are as follows: February 7 for spring, May 9 for summer, August 11 for autumn, and November 10 for winter.
^Ovid, Fasti, translated by A. Wiseman and P. Wiseman. Oxford University Press, 2013, p.5
^Beck, Roger (2006). The Religion of the Mithras Cult in the Roman Empire: Mysteries of the Unconquered Sun. Oxford University Press. pp. 209–210, 254.
^ abBradshaw, Paul (2020). "The Dating of Christmas". In Larsen, Timothy (ed.). The Oxford Handbook of Christmas. Oxford University Press. pp. 4–10.
^Roll, Susan (1995). Toward the Origins of Christmas. Kok Pharos Publishing. p. 107.
^Nothaft, C. Philipp E. (2013). "Early Christian Chronology and the Origins of the Christmas Date". Questions Liturgiques/Studies in Liturgy. 94 (3). Peeters: 248. doi:10.2143/QL.94.3.3007366. Although HRT is nowadays used as the default explanation for the choice of 25 December as Christ's birthday, few advocates of this theory seem to be aware of how paltry the available evidence actually is.
^Gunnell, Terry (2005). "The Season of the Dísir: The Winter Nights and the Dísarblót in Early Scandinavian Belief". Cosmos: The Journal of the Traditional Cosmology Society. 16: 121-122.
^Karasawa, Kazutomo (2015). The Old English Metrical Calendar (Menologium). Boydell & Brewer. pp. 36–37.
^ abParker, Eleanor (2023). Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year. Reaktion Books. pp. 69–71.
^Tirta, Mark (2004). Petrit Bezhani (ed.). Mitologjia ndër shqiptarë (in Albanian). Tirana: Mësonjëtorja. ISBN99927-938-9-9. pp. 249–251.
^Poghirc, Cicerone (1987). "Albanian Religion". In Mircea Eliade (ed.). The Encyclopedia of Religion. Vol. 1. New York: MacMillan Publishing Co. pp. 178–180.
^Meeus, Jean (2009). Astronomical Algorithms (2nd English Edition with corrections as of August 10, 2009 ed.). Richmond, Virginia: Willmann-Bell, Inc. ISBN978-0-943396-61-3.
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