50 Fun Facts About Winter Solstice

The winter solstice is the day with what?

It also has the longest night of the year for that hemisphere.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the winter solstice falls on about which date?

In the Southern Hemisphere it falls six months later.

The winter solstice happens when a pole reaches its maximum tilt in which direction relative to the Sun?

The opposite pole is having its summer solstice at the same moment.

What actually causes the seasons on our planet?

The tilt makes the Sun climb higher in one half of the year and stay low in the other.

Earth's axis is tilted by roughly how many degrees?

This tilt is also called the planet's obliquity.

Surprisingly, Earth is actually closest to the Sun in which month?

So the seasons cannot be caused by distance; it is the tilt.

Stonehenge, in England, is aligned to the sunset on which day?

It is aligned to the summer solstice sunrise in the other direction.

The Newgrange passage tomb in Ireland is older than Stonehenge and older than what else?

It was built around 3100 BC.

At Newgrange, the winter solstice sunrise shines into the inner chamber through what feature?

For a few minutes the beam floods the cruciform chamber.

The Germanic winter festival that later merged with Christmas is called what?

The old sources describe two Yule-months around the solstice.

The Roman festival held around the solstice in honour of the god Saturn was called what?

It began on 17 December and overturned normal social rules.

During the Roman festival, what social reversal happened at the dinner table?

The festival flipped Roman social norms and allowed gambling.

What is the name of China's traditional winter-solstice festival?

The name means the extreme, or summit, of winter.

At the Chinese winter festival, families make and eat balls of glutinous rice called what?

The round shape symbolises reunion.

Iran's ancient winter-solstice celebration, Yalda, marks what?

Families gather to eat, drink and read the poetry of Hafez.

Which two red fruits are especially significant at Yalda Night?

Their red colour symbolises the glow of dawn and life.

The Soyal ceremony is the winter-solstice ritual of which Native American peoples?

It opens the sacred underground kiva chambers and the Kachina season.

The Inca festival Inti Raymi honoured the sun god and fell in June because Cusco lies where?

In Cusco, Peru, the winter solstice falls in June.

In parts of ancient Europe, the winter solstice symbolised what happening to the Sun?

After the solstice the days start to lengthen again.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the winter solstice falls in which month?

The seasons are reversed from the Northern Hemisphere.

The old midwinter word survives in the name of which decorated log burned at Christmas?

'Yule-log' is recorded in English from 1725.

The name 'Jolnir', or 'Yule man', is also a name for which Norse god?

The link connects the god to the midwinter festival.

The day of the year with the most daylight is known as what?

It happens at the same moment in the opposite hemisphere.

In the far north, when the Sun stays below the horizon for more than 24 hours, it is called what?

The summer version, when the Sun never sets, is the midnight sun.

The midnight sun, when the Sun never sets, happens north of which line?

The same happens south of the Antarctic Circle.

Macrobius noted that at the solstice the Egyptians brought an idol of what out of a shrine?

He wrote that the Sun appears small on the shortest day.

Besides Stonehenge and Newgrange, which North American earthwork is aligned to the solstice sun?

Many ancient monuments track the solstice sunrise or sunset.

During the Roman midwinter festival, who was the mock ruler chosen to give comic orders?

He gave comic orders that everyone had to follow.

In which country is the Yalda festival celebrated?

It is also kept across Central Asia.

Newgrange stands overlooking which Irish river?

It is the main monument of the Bru na Boinne World Heritage Site.

Which Persian poet's verse is traditionally read aloud on Yalda Night?

Families also read the epic Shahnameh until after midnight.

'Obliquity' is another word for what property of Earth?

It is the angle between the rotational axis and the orbital axis.

Stonehenge stands on which chalk upland in Wiltshire?

It is about two miles west of Amesbury in Wiltshire.

The Yalda festival is also known by which other name, meaning 'fortieth'?

It is celebrated across Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and neighbouring countries.

After the winter solstice, what happens to the length of the days?

The solstice is the turning point of the year's daylight.

The stones now standing at Stonehenge were put in their current positions around which period?

Some stones may have been on the site as early as 3000 BC.

For its hemisphere, the shortest day of the year falls during which season?

Despite being the shortest day, the coldest weather often comes weeks later.

With zero obliquity, how would a planet's spin axis relate to its orbit?

A planet with no tilt would have no seasons.

The ocean's role aside, the winter solstice has been marked by festivals since which era?

Monuments like Newgrange show the solstice mattered thousands of years ago.

The southern hemisphere's shortest day, during the northern warm season, lands on which dates?

The December solstice similarly lands on the 21st or 22nd.

The Temple of Amun-Ra at Karnak, aligned to the solstice sunrise, is in which country?

The chapel of Ra-Horakhty at Abu Simbel and Hatshepsut's mortuary temple at Luxor share the same midwinter alignment.

The word 'solstice' comes from Latin roots meaning what?

The Sun's declination appears to pause at its northern or southern limit before reversing; a 16th-century English calque, 'sunstay', never caught on.

To ward off winter colds, Japanese custom calls for a solstice bath infused with which fruit?

The citrus soak, called yuzuyu, is tied to Toji, Japan's name for the same solar term that China marks as Dongzhi.

In the ancient Roman calendar, which date was counted as the winter solstice?

Varro called it the middle of winter, and Ovid described it in the Fasti as the first day of the 'new Sun'.

In AD 274, Emperor Aurelian created a solstice-time birthday festival for which god?

Historians still debate how much this 'Invincible Sun' feast influenced the Church's later choice of the same date for Christmas.

The Neolithic Goseck Circle, with openings for the solstice sunrise and sunset, is in which country?

Its two gaps line up with the midwinter sunrise and sunset, making it one of the oldest known solar observatories in Europe.

The Hindu festival Makara Sankranti marks the Sun's entry into which zodiac sign?

Celebrated in January in honour of Surya, it signals the end of the month containing the solstice and the return of longer days.

Maeshowe, a passage grave lit by the setting midwinter sun, stands on which Scottish islands?

Built around 2800 BC, it gives its name to a whole type of chambered cairn found nowhere else.

Bede wrote that pagan Anglo-Saxons marked the solstice with Mōdraniht, a name meaning what?

It marked the start of the Anglo-Saxon year; Bede also recorded that both December and January were called Giuli, an early form of 'Yule'.

Small wax or pottery figurines given at the Roman midwinter festival were called what?

Valuable presents would have flagged social rank against the season's spirit, so people swapped these tokens, candles or gag gifts, which Augustus loved.