The days will slowly begin to start getting a little bit longer very soon!
The first day of the cold winter in the Northern Hemisphere is marked by the winter solstice which occurs on Thursday, December 21, 2023 at 10:27 P.M. EST. The winter solstice is the day with the fewest hours of sunlight throughout the year, making it the “shortest day” of the year. After December 21st each day will gradually get longer until we reach the summer solstice – the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. The winter solstice marks the official beginning of astronomical winter which occurs once a year in each hemisphere. On the day of winter solstice, we are tilted as far away from the sun as possible which means that the Sun’s path across the sky is as low in the sky as possible. Did you know that on the day of winter solstice we have almost nine hours less of sunlight than on summer solstice? You would think that we would have the earliest sunset of the year on the shortest day of the year but the earliest sunset actually happens a few days earlier in the calendar and it is all to do with our clocks not quite mirroring the Earth’s orbit.
I’m not sure about you but I am ready for the cold to go away already and we are not even close to Spring!
A couple fun National Holidays on December 21st are:
- Bah Humbug Day
- National Flashlight Day
