Two days of the Earth year are special. Their difference from others is in the height of the sun above the horizon line at noon.
These days (one in winter, one in summer) are called solstices. What is this period? What changes in the astronomical year is it associated with? Why did ancient people attach so much importance to it?
Winter and summer solstices
Winter coincides with such an astronomical event: the position of the luminary in relation to the celestial equator (in its movement observed throughout the year along a large circle of the celestial sphere) is the lowest. And in the summer solstice, respectively, the highest.
There are international standards for Coordinated Universal Time, introduced on January 1, 1925, which is a time scale based on the rotation of our planet. According to them, the solstice for the inhabitants of the northern hemisphere occurs on 21-22 days of the first month of winter and 20-21 days of the first month of summer. The population of the southern hemisphere has the winter solstice in June, and the summer solstice inDecember.
The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year. Naturally, the night on this day is record long. The summer solstice is exactly the opposite. Moreover, if you do not take into account the poles of the planet. After all, there is a semi-annual polar night, the middle of which is the winter solstice, and a polar day of the same length centered on the summer solstice.
When will daylight begin to increase and night begin to decrease? And when is it the other way around?
In winter and spring, the height to which the sun rises in the very middle of the day between sunrise and sunset increases day by day. The climax is reached just at the summer solstice. The luminary, as it were, "stops" its rise, is in static. All the day that has arrived up to this point reaches its maximum length. Further, the vector of its movement becomes opposite. The sun begins to sink lower and lower until it "freezes" at the minimum height above the horizon. This will be the winter solstice.
The night, which has been steadily increasing up to this point, reaches its longest duration. And the very next day the path of the sun will go back - up again. Again, the time will come when the light day will begin to increase and the dark time of the day will decrease.
Astronomical winter and summer
Due to the fact that some years are leap years, the dates of the solstices are shifted byone or two days.
Traditionally, astronomical winter begins on the day of the winter solstice. It will last until March 21 or the vernal equinox. It is not difficult to guess that astronomical summer starts from the moment of the summer solstice and ends with the autumn equinox. This, again, is true in the northern hemisphere, but in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reversed.
Zodiac on top of the "bell"
It remains to add that if the graph of the height of the rise of the sun for 365 days of the year resembles a bell-shaped sinusoid, then a small number of days at and around the solstice on this graph will be its top. When daylight begins to add (or when it just starts to decrease), the solar disk practically does not deviate from the maximum (or minimum) height above the horizon. That's why the solstice.
Since the time of the ancient Greek astronomer Hipparchus of Nicaea, the points of the solstices have been designated by the zodiacal symbols of their respective constellations. In the past - Capricorn (winter) and Cancer (summer), today - Sagittarius and Taurus.
Solstice in ancient traditions
Since ancient times, representatives of various cultures considered the winter solstice to be an exceptionally important day. It was celebrated as a celebration of the beginning of the next year and the birth of the Sun.
Farmers and pastoralists, our distant ancestors, were dependent on the graces of nature. And the time when daylight hours increase promised an increase in the number of thesefavors too.
In the calendars of different peoples, the rebirth of the sun in winter was noted as an important event in the natural cycle, in accordance with which the ancients learned to live without violating harmony with nature. The solstice is the time of rituals and the most important rituals, a celebration of the unity of the world of people and the world of spirits.
According to ancient beliefs, the winter solstice gives a chance for wishes to come true, up to a cardinal change in one's own destiny under the protection of higher powers.
Here are just some of the traditions of celebrating this day in the past:
- The Germanic peoples called this holiday Yule. It symbolized for the peoples of pagan Europe the beginning of the next cycle of life of renewed nature. It was believed that the gods descend into the human world on the solstice, and communication with a troll or an elf was a common event of the day.
- Celts hung spruce branches above the entrance, between the rooms, near the hearth. It was obligatory to kindle a fire, which was “fed” with oak logs, so that the renewed light flared up brighter and brighter. The central part of the dwelling had to be decorated with some kind of round symbol of the star.
- Persia. On the day of the winter solstice (the so-called solstice day), Mithra was born (the god of the Sun - the winner of winter). During this period, the clearing of the paths for the coming spring was celebrated.
- The following knowledge came from ancient China: from the winter solstice, natural male power begins to grow stronger. There, this day of the beginning of a new cycle was considered a moment that brings good luck and happiness and worthy of a magnificent celebration.
Polar night
Polar night is the time of day when the sun does not rise above the horizon for 24 hours. In some settlements in Russia, located at a northern latitude above 67º 24´, the polar night is not exotic, but an ordinary calendar event. Among them are Apatity, Vorkuta, Dudinka, Zapolyarny, Naryan-Mar and others.
Even at the latitude of the Arctic Circle (66º34´ N), where the center of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug is located - the city of Salakhard (the only one in the world in the Arctic Circle) - the phenomenon of the polar night is observed.
When will daylight be added? Even modern people, despite any high technology, like distant ancestors gathered around a ritual fire, look with hope into the black or gray sky, looking for an answer to this question. And they are not difficult to understand, being somewhere in high latitudes during the winter solstice.
Effect of changing daylight hours on he alth
The he alth of the population of the northern territories is subject to the negative effects of such phenomena as the polar night. Unfavorable changes in daylight hours in the direction of its reduction and increase in the dark time of the day cause the following consequences:
- Fatigue.
- Decreased vision.
- Depressive states.
- Emotional agitation or lethargy.
- Decreased immunity.
- Exacerbation of chronic diseases.
Therefore, doctors recommend not to wait for the addition of lightday, cherishing a gloomy mood, and lead an active lifestyle, but in a sparing mode. It is important not to forget about he althy eating.
Still, every year comes the long-awaited time when daylight hours increase. Soon the sun will travel around the sky around the clock, giving people another extraordinary miracle - a polar day. And in anticipation of the time when daylight begins to increase, people will decorate the streets of polar cities with bright illumination, making another harsh winter less gloomy.
