While it was celebrated as a sacred time in ancient cultures, the winter solstice is still significant today and marks the beginning of winter.

The winter solstice is the shortest day of the year and marks the period with the fewest hours of daylight. It also represents the longest night of the year and the time when the sun reaches its lowest daily peak in the sky.

The word “solstice” is derived from Solthe Latin word for sun, and Sisterwhich means “to stop or stand still.”

While the southern hemisphere celebrates the start of summer, people north of the equator experience the opposite, the first day of winter. This year it falls on Saturday, December 21st at 9:21 a.m., while the sun is expected to set at 3:51 p.m.

This means there will be 7 hours 49 minutes and 42 seconds of daylight. This means it is 8 hours and 49 minutes shorter than the June solstice.

While this means the day will likely be dark and dreary, the good news is that the days will continue to get longer and there will be more hours of daylight leading up to the peak of the summer solstice.

The variation occurs because the Earth orbits the sun at an angle of 23.4 degrees on its axis, according to the Royal Museums of Greenwich.

During warmer periods in the Northern Hemisphere the North Pole is tilted towards the Sun, meaning longer daylight hours, while in the Southern Hemisphere the opposite is true. In winter the situation is reversed as the North Pole tilts away from the sun in the Northern Hemisphere.

A solstice occurs around the world on the same day when the sun reaches its lowest or highest point in the sky during the year because the Earth’s axis tilts toward or away from the sun.

In the Southern Hemisphere the opposite is true, with December 21st being the day of the year with the longest exposure to sunlight.

Historically, the winter solstice was of great importance to many cultures, such as ancient Egypt and ancient Rome, often as a marker of the passing seasons and a possible time of rebirth.

In northern Europe, from the Faroe Islands to Estonia, the Germanic peoples have long celebrated this event, which came to be known as Christmas.

While Christmas dates back to the Nordic people who celebrated the rebirth of the sun for twelve days, it was also celebrated by Anglo-Saxon pagans.

According to Pliny the Elder, Druid priests in Britain celebrated the important date by collecting mistletoe and sacrificing bulls – which was also probably a practical measure to limit the number of mouths that had to be fed during months of famine.