Winter Solstice

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Winter Solstice
December 21st 2005 The Science Mystery of the S
hortest Day of the Year By Mary Alice Osborne Up
per School Librarian
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• The Earth is actually nearer the sun in January
  than it is in June -- by three million miles.
  What causes the seasons is something completely
  different. The Earth leans slightly on its axis
  like a spinning top frozen in one off-kilter
  position. Astronomers have pinpointed the precise
  angle of the tilt at 23 degrees and 27 minutes
  off the perpendicular to the plane of orbit. This
  planetary pose is what causes all the variety of
  our climate all the drama and poetry of our
  seasons, since it determines how many hours and
  minutes each hemisphere receives precious
  sunlight.

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The Earths Tilt 23.5 degrees
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Solstice

• Solstice literally means Sun Stands Still. For
  a few days around the time of the winter
  solstice, Dec. 19th 23rd, if viewed at the same
  time each day, the sun appears to stand still in
  the sky and its elevation does not seem to
  change.

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Will the sun come back?

• Many cultures the world over perform solstice
  ceremonies. The suns warmth and growing powers
  are seen as key to their survival. Ancient
  people feared fear that the failing light of the
  sun would never return unless humans intervened
  with anxious vigil or antic celebration. As the
  sun began to return and appear higher in the sky,
  they rejoiced.

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Sun Gods
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Ancient Egypt

• In ancient Egypt the sun god Ra was the dominant
  figure among the high gods. In the myth relating
  the voyage of the sun god over the heavenly
  ocean, the sun sets out as the young god Kheper
  appears at noon in the zenith as the full-grown
  sun, Re and arrives in the evening at the
  western region in the shape of the old sun god,
  Atum.

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Ra, the Egyptian Sun God
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Ancient India

• The sun was one of the most popular deities among
  the Indo-European peoples and was a symbol of
  divine power to them. Surya is glorified in the
  Vedic hymns of ancient India as an all-seeing god
  who observes both good and evil actions. He
  expels not only darkness but also evil dreams and
  diseases.

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• The Indo-European character of sun worship is
  also seen in the conception of the solar deity,
  drawn in his carriage, generally by four white
  horses, common to many Indo-European peoples, and
  recurring in Indo-Iranian, Greco-Roman, and
  Scandinavian mythology.

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Feast of Sol Invictus

• During the later periods of Roman history, sun
  worship gained in importance and ultimately led
  to what has been called a solar monotheism. The
  feast of Sol Invictus (Unconquered Sun) on
  December 25 was celebrated with great joy, and
  eventually this date was taken over by the
  Christians as Christmas, the birthday of Christ.

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Roman Coins
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The Sun Dance Great Plains Indians

• The Sun Dance is almost always performed near the
  time of the summer solstice. Most Sun Dances
  begin with the erection of a circular lodge or
  corral around a solemnly chosen and cut central
  pole. During the next three or four days, periods
  of dancing, accompanied by singing, drumming, or
  whistling, are interspersed with periods of rest
  and meditation. Dancers do not eat or drink
  during the 3 or 4 days of the dance, although
  some do chew on bear root to keep their mouths
  moist. Toward the end of the Sun Dance,
  participants experience visions and receive
  blessings.

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Central and South America

• In the Pre-Columbian civilizations of Mexico and
  Peru, sun worship was a prominent feature. In
  Aztec religion extensive human sacrifice was
  demanded by the sun gods Huitzilopochtli and
  Tezcatlipoca. In both Mexican and Peruvian
  ancient religion, the Sun occupied an important
  place in myth and ritual.

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Strange Structures

• Ancient peoples customs and beliefs surrounding
  the Solstices and Sun Worship are reflected in
  the strange buildings and monuments, which they
  left behind.

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The AncientsHuge Efforts to Observe the
Solstices

• An utterly astounding array of ancient cultures
  built their greatest architectures -- tombs,
  temples, cairns and sacred observatories -- so
  that they aligned with the solstices and
  equinoxes. Many of us know that Stonehenge is a
  perfect marker of both the Winter and the Summer
  solstices.

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• Hundreds of other megalithic structures
  throughout Europe are oriented to the solstices
  and the equinoxes. The blossoming field of
  archaeoastronomy studies such sacred sites in the
  Americas, Asia, Indonesia, and the Middle East.
  Recent research into the medieval Great Zimbabwe
  in sub-Saharan Africa (also known as the "African
  Stonehenge") indicates a similar purpose.

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Great Zimbabwe

• The arrangement of the walls, the complicated
  symbols on stone monoliths and the position of a
  tall tower suggest that medieval Zimbabweans used
  the complex to track the moon, sun, planets and
  stars for centuries.
• Several of the stone monoliths, for example, line
  up with certain bright stars in the constellation
  Orion as they rise on the morning of the shortest
  day of the year, the winter solstice.

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Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon, New Mexico

• In North America, one of the most famous such
  sites is the Sun Dagger of Chaco Canyon, New
  Mexico, built a thousand years ago by the
  Chacoans, ancestors of the Pueblo people. Even
  cultures that followed a moon-based calendar
  seemed also to understand the importance of these
  sun-facing seasonal turning points.

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Newgrange, Ireland

• At Newgrange in Ireland a wonderful event takes
  place for a few days around the winter solstice
  each year, the passage and chamber of the 5000
  year old monument are illuminated by the winter
  solstice sunrise. A shaft of sunlight shines
  through the roof box over the entrance and
  penetrates the passage to light up the chamber.
  The dramatic event lasts for 17 minutes at dawn
  from the 19th to the 23rd of December.

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• Newgrange, a beautiful megalithic site in Ireland
  is a huge circular stone structure, estimated to
  be 5,000 years old, older by centuries than
  Stonehenge, and older than the Egyptian pyramids!
  It was built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep
  into its central chamber at dawn on winter
  solstice.
• The light illuminates a stone basin below
  intricate carvings -- spirals, eye shapes, solar
  discs. Although not much is known about how
  Newgrange was used by its builders, marking the
  solstice was obviously of tremendous spiritual
  import to them.

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• The Megalithic Passage Tomb at Newgrange was
  built about 3200 BC. The kidney shaped mound
  covers an area of over one acre and is surrounded
  by 97 kerbstones, some of which are richly
  decorated with megalithic art. The 19 metre long
  inner passage leads to a cruciform chamber with a
  corbelled roof. It is estimated that the
  construction of the Passage Tomb at Newgrange
  would have taken a work force of 300 at least 20
  years.

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Mae Shoe, Wales
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Stonehenge, England
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Bibliography

• Sun Worship." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2005.
  Encyclopædia Britannica Premium
  Service. 18 Dec. 2005 b/article-9070338.