The Solstice

Unlike many of the festivals on these pages, the summer and winter solstice are not formally celebrated in our modern Western calendar - although it is likely that the winter solstice was part of the origin of our Yule celebrations such as Christmas. However the solstices remain significant days of the year for many wiccans, festival goers, pagans and others. They are popular with many who follow the older ways as well as many who embrace the New Age philosophies.

The word solstice derives from the Latin sol sistere, "sun stand still".

Sun the-Print
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What Is The Solstice?

A simplified view of the solar system says that the Earth revoles around the Sun, spinning on its axis with the equator pointing towards the Sun. This is why the equatorial regions are hotter than the polar ones - they are pointing directly at the sun.

The reality is somewhat more complex.The earth's rotational axis is actually tilted slightly. This means that as the Earth orbits the Sun, the nearest point actually shifts back and forwards slightly. This is what produces the varying length of the day during the year.

The apparent position of the Sun in the sky thus changes throughout the year. As seen from the Earth it appears that the noon position of the Sun moves back and forwards across the equator. It's a little as if the Sun were a pendulum swinging in the sky, taking a whole year to swing one way and back the other.

At the extreme points of its apparent motion, the Sun - like a pendulum - "stops" and changes direction. These points are the solstices. They mark the extremes of the Sun's apparent movement, which are called the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn.

The solstice days are thus those when the daylight hours are at their longest or shortest. When the Sun is over the northern Tropic of Cancer, the northern hemisphere experiences the longest day and shortest night. When it is over the southern Tropic of Capricorn, the northern henisphere has its shortest day and longest night.

The exact solstice dates vary from year to year, in the northern hemisphere the longest day is usually June 21st and the shortest day December 21st.

On the two days of the year when the sun is over the equator at noon, the Earth has days and nights of equal lengths - these are the equinoxes.