December 21, 2012 the most impressionable part of humanity was expecting the end of the world - the Mayan calendar was ending.
In the Northern Hemisphere, the longest night of the year took on mystical significance. The ancient priests knew the astronomical phenomenon of the solstice, although they could not fully understand its causes.
Time of day, seasons
The complex astronomical system of which the Earth is a part is unique. It has been established that such concepts as "day" and "night" are unknown for most planets outside the solar system. Large clusters of stars, typical of the center of the Galaxy, do not leave planets and space objects that revolve around them without light radiation. At any point on our planet, when the Sun falls below 18° below the horizon, astronomical night sets in.
The life of an ancient person directly depended on nature, on its state, on the change of seasons. He quickly established a pattern in the movement of the luminary during the year, the dependence of the duration of periods favorable for agriculture on heightsun above the horizon. In the middle and high northern latitudes, where the lack of natural light is particularly severe, the longest night of the year meant that the darkest part of the year had passed and the sun would linger a little longer in the sky.
Equinox and Solstice
Solstice - the period when the direction of the daily change of the highest point above the horizon, which the luminary reaches in the middle of the day, between sunrise and sunset, changes. Such a change - rise or fall - is uneven, it slows down for several days, when it seems that the sun at noon reaches almost the same height above the horizon. Hence the name of the solstice days.
Winter and spring in the Northern Hemisphere is the time when this climax rises higher and higher every day. Day and night become equal in duration on the day of the vernal equinox (around March 20), which means the onset of astronomical spring. The rise of the midday point reaches its apogee on June 20-21, and the reverse process begins.
Around September 22, the equinox marks the beginning of autumn in terms of the movement of the Sun and Earth. Every day the daylight hours become a few minutes shorter, until the longest night of the year arrives - the day of the winter solstice, the beginning of astronomical winter.
Tilt of the earth's axis
For each specific point on the surface of the globe, there are time and seasonal periods. The change of times of day and annual temperature cycles is influenced by the revolution of the Earth around the Sun and the rotation of the planetaround its axis. In this case, the axis of rotation is inclined by 23.5°. Because of this, less direct sunlight falls on the surface of the Northern Hemisphere, and they do not reach the northern polar regions for a long time at all, and in winter the polar night sets in.
At zero latitude - at the earth's equator - the longitude of the day is approximately the same throughout the year and is about 12 hours. In the Southern Hemisphere, the duration of daylight hours has an inverse relationship with the time of year: from the last days of September to the end of March, it is more than 12 hours, and less in spring and summer. The longest night of the year in southern latitudes falls on June 22.
Instruments and tables
Determining the length of day and night has always seemed important for planning people's economic activities. Even in the Middle Ages, special devices appeared, and data on the length of the time of day were published in calendars and calendars. From them it was always possible to determine how long the shortest day lasts. Different systems of chronology adopted in different cultures, calendar reforms, correction of discrepancies between astronomical and civil time led to the fact that the winter solstice differed in date every year.
Today there is world time, in most European and American countries the Gregorian calendar operates, so you can find out what date is the longest night in the right area of the planet using special tables. So, in 2016, the winter solstice is 21December, at 10:44 am. The duration of the night on this day is 17 hours.
Traditions and rituals
Since the Neolithic, the days of the solstice have found expression in the rituals and buildings of different peoples. The stones of the famous Stonehenge are exposed in such a way as to indicate the position of the sun on the day that marks the beginning of astronomical winter.
In the northern latitudes there was a long waiting period for spring, often the most difficult time of the year. Livestock had to be slaughtered, because pasture disappeared, beer and wine harvested in autumn ripened. The beginning of winter was accompanied by holidays. The Slavs - Kolyada, Solstice, the Germans celebrated Yodl on the day of the longest night.
People saw the important meaning of this day in the fact that the longest night has passed, the day will begin to increase, which means that there is hope for the revival of nature, faith in endless life. It is no coincidence that the holiday of the Nativity of Christ has a binding to the day of the winter solstice.
