The Shortest Day -The Winter Solstice

The Winter Solstice.

As the nights get longer, it means the winter solstice is almost upon us, which is the term used for the shortest day of the year.

This marks the day when the Earth's Northern Hemisphere is tilted furthest away from the sun and we receive the fewest daylight hours in a 24-hour period.

It is a day celebrated by pagans for thousands of years and has a lot of traditions and rituals attached to it.

Even today, many people make the trip to one of the UK's oldest sites, Stonehenge to mark the shortest day. One reason why this is a popular site to visit is that you can glimpse the sun's rays through the stones which are lined up with the path of the sun. Most people arrive late on the night of solstice to catch the sunrise.

The winter solstice usually occurs between December 20 and 23.This year the shortest day of 2021 falls on Tuesday, December 21 – and there will be less than eight hours of sunlight on this day.

The sun is predicted to rise at 8.25am and set at 4.00pm in Tattenhall, so it is estimated there will be around 7 hours and 35 minutes of daylight on this date.

After December 21, the days will gradually get longer until the summer solstice on Tuesday, June 21 2022. However the time of sunrise remains the same for a further week, but sunset is later resulting in longer day time .

The shortest day is celebrated across the world in many different religions.
The winter solstice is a major pagan festival, with rituals of rebirth having been celebrated for thousands of years.

Many traditions we now think of as being part of Christmas – including Yule logs, mistletoe and Christmas trees – have roots in the pagan celebration.

The priests of the ancient Celts, known as The Druids, used evergreen trees , holly and mistletoe as symbols of everlasting life during winter solstice rituals.