The winter solstice is here
The winter solstice comes tonight and I, for one, am cheering. It may not be a holiday exactly, but winter holidays cluster around it for a very good reason: the beginning of the end of the dark days.
Who wouldn’t drink to that? We who live up north are especially sensitive to the fact that the days that get dark almost as soon as they get light have finally peaked, and the lengthening of the days has begun. It’s no accident, no accident at all, that both of the winter holidays— Christmas and Chanuka—are festivals that feature (literally) light in the darkness.
This year the winter solstice has some unusual characteristics:
The longest night of 2018 will be illuminated by a full moon and a meteor shower…
This year is the first time a full moon will coincide with the solstice since 2010. The next time will be in 2094.
The full moon of December has had many names over the years. NASA refers to it as the Cold Moon. It has also gone by names such as Long Night Moon by some Native American tribes, who kept track of time by observing the seasons and lunar months, according to the old Farmer’s Almanac.
Friday’s night sky will also be shared with the annual Ursid meteor shower named after the constellation Ursa Major.
Happy solstice!
A joyful winter solstice neo and all who frequent this wonderful blog. It is overcast here, so no full moon or meteor viewing tonight. In Scandinavia on the winter solstice people say the light is coming and on the summer solstice they greet each other by saying the darkness is coming.
In my neck of the woods we have 9:07 hours of daylight. Oldest son and family shoud arrive in a few hours to enliven our house until the 26th. Enjoy the good things winter brings.
I remember going to work in the dark and coming home in the dark when I lived up in the North a few times, once three years in Germany which really is cold and dark and then three years in Minnesota where people would plug their cars in at night and it would warm up to zero in February. Thirty years ago I had enough, quit my job, sold my snow blower and moved back down South to Texas where today we have 10 hours and 13 minutes of daytime and it is nice short sleeve weather outside.
Of course gathering in family and mixing alcohol with a little politics and a full moon makes things just ever that much more fun, especially when most of them like to eat only their funny stuff and not my funny stuff that I like.
If only New England would join the Atlantic time zone, at least the sun wouldn’t be setting at 3:30 in the afternoon. It’s a long slog back to March 21st here. And we don’t even get to see that full moon tonight as we are covered in clouds here in CT, and I assume the same up there near beantown for Neo.
Something like 9 hours and 40 minutes of daylight here in NC, plus dawn and dusk. Not sure we will see either the moon or the meteor shower because of the clouds — which is fine with me, as the full moon interferes with my sleep.
Luciadag is 12/13, which was the shortest day of the year until the calendar change in the 18th C (variable.)
We no longer have bragging rights even up here in NH, with one son above the Arctic Circle in Norway – the visible sun went away six weeks ago, though they have dusk and dawn for a couple of weeks after; another son in Nome, which is down below 4 hours of daylight now. https://www.visitnomealaska.com/nome-cam
I loved Texas when I lived there … except for the summer heat. The big sky, and those long, sunny, and dry “autumns” that persisted into winter: to remind we Northerners of days like that bright and almost warm Saturday morning in the early Fall when Dad took you up to the lumber yard with him because at 8 you were a big boy now, and could keep him company as he bought project materials.
You’re lucky if you get half a dozen post-leaf drop, DIY days, like that in a year, in the north.
And then there are those of us for whom 12/21 means “only” 53 days until Spring Training. As the countdown site says: Winter Bad. Baseball Good.
Of course there are some of us who see 21st December from the other hemisphere and have a whole different solstice to deal with. 😉
Of course there are some of us who see 21st December from the other hemisphere and have a whole different solstice to deal with. 😉
And by next week…hella hot temperatures!
oops…sorry about that…meant to simply edit but got a whole nother post in too…blame it on the solstice & that I’m actually a day ahead to boot!
Solstice AND a full moon AND a meteor shower?? (AND the upcoming monster Polar Vortex!!)
AND now THIS (yes, folks, we should definitely be worried — Hat Tip(?) Instapundit):
https://www.foodandwine.com/news/hersheys-kisses-missing-tips-2018
DNW – Those are nice Texas memories you shared.
Down here in the Texas Hill Country NW of San Antonio it is usually cooler than the rest of Texas and we are warmer in the winter. I just mowed the grass in my backyard and moved more firewood up by the fire pit since we have company coming in. Highs in the 70’s and lows in the 40’s, just right for grilling and sitting outside in the evening around a fire with a full moon.
Merry Christmas and Holiday Seasons to all…..
OldTexan on December 22, 2018 at 12:53 pm at 12:53 pm said:
DNW – Those are nice Texas memories you shared.
Down here in the Texas Hill Country NW of San Antonio it is usually cooler than the rest of Texas and we are warmer in the winter.
* * *
We had supposed that we would retire in Texas, and the choice was between Huntsville & the San Antonio hill country (lived in SA 2 years and love the city, but won’t live in the metro ever again because, reasons).
I loved the weather down there (and am a born & bred Texian), but the lack of bugs in Colorado appeals to me very strongly.
The snow, not so much.
AesopFan, Colorado & Texas Hill Country two great places to live.
We live less than an hour NW of San Antonio in Kendall county and love it and yes we have bugs but unlike out kids who live N of Gunnison in Colorado we have oxygen.
Oxygen is good — and it has taken me a long time to get used to the dryness up here. But now 3 of our 5 kids live within an hour-diameter circle of us, so I guess we’ll stay put!