When Is the 2016 Winter Solstice?

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When is the 2016 winter solstice?

2016 Winter Solstice
Source: iStockphoto

This year’s shortest day of the year is on Wednesday, December 21, which will also mark the longest night of the year. Every year, the winter solstice marks the turn of the calendar as autumn ends and the winter begins.

From an astronomical standpoint, the winter solstice means that the two opposite points in the sky to which the Earth’s axis of rotation points change very slowly. Over the course of about 26,000 years, a complete circle is created.

From a cultural standpoint, the winter solstice was used to mark a number of events, including mating season for animals, the sowing of crops and monitoring winter reserves of food.

The pagan Scandinavian and Germanic people celebrate a twelve-day mid-winter holiday known as Yule. The word is part of the longer word “yuletide,” which is a day of worship, seen as the day that nature reawakens.

It is also celebrated in Syrian culture in relation to Sol Invictus, who was a Syrian god who was adopted as the chief god of the Roman Empire under Emperor Aurelian.

In The Bleak Midwinter is a Christmas carol that honors the winter solstice with its name. What are your plans as the winter approaches us?

The U.S. is expected to have some of the coldest days in recorded history this winter, and this will occur throughout the entirety of the year.

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