Winter Solstice: shortest day of the year

At 3.27am today 22 December the UK will be in what is known as a Winter Solstice which means it will go dark that bit earlier.

From tomorrow 23 December it is reversed and we will start to see the light grow out again although it won’t be noticeable until around February.

The winter solstice is a big thing for some people with festivals and rituals taking place, Stonehenge will be the place to be for such things although many people are unaware that the ancient stones were moved from its original place.

The stones it is thought was first discovered at West Woods in South Marlborough

It has been reported that the Anglo-Saxons believed the Winter Solstice was on Christmas Day however it was set for the Northern Hemisphere on 22 December every year, the summer solstice will be on 20 June 2024.

The solstices winter and summer is all to do with a tilt of the Earth towards the sun, in a Winter Solstice the sun is at the lowest point and the opposite during a summer solstice.

It is however the history and the spiritual meaning that what makes both solstices very interesting.