Do You Know the Difference between the Solstice and the Equinox?
The Yuletide and Festivus holidays also start in late December.
Issue #203 Education December 21, 2022
Today is the first official day of winter in the northern hemisphere (where we live) and of summer in the southern hemisphere.
The winter solstice is also the shortest day of the year.
Some people confuse the solstice with the equinox, but they are opposites.
The Differences Between the Solstice and the Equinox
The seasons of the year are caused by the Earth’s tilt on its axis. If there was no tilt of the Earth, the sun would shine on the Equator all year long and there would be no changing seasons.
The solstice occurs twice a year when the sun reaches its maximum or minimum angles. The word “solstice” originates from the Latin solstitium: sol = sun and stit = stopped or stationary.
The northern hemisphere solstices mark the beginning of winter in December and of summer in June and occur around the 21st or 22nd of the respective months.
During the summer solstice, we enjoy the longest day of the year.
The equinoxes, on the other hand, mark the time when the sun is directly over the equator, and exactly halfway between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn.
The equinoxes also occur twice a year. The spring or vernal equinox is the beginning of spring around March 21st, and the fall or autumnal equinox is the beginning of autumn around September 23rd.
Those seasonal changes are called equinoxes because the daylight and nighttime hours are just about the same, or equal.
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The Yuletide Holiday also starts on the Winter Solstice Day
Yule or Yuletide is a 12-day secular festival historically observed by the Germanic peoples. Some present-day Christmas customs and traditions such as the Yule log and Yule singing, and others may have connections to older pagan Yule traditions.
Some of the original Yuletide traditions included feasts (including ham, the origin of having a “Christmas Ham”), drinking, toasts to the deceased, animal sacrifices, and cooking and dancing around a big fire, where the “Yule Log” idea originated.
Although it is often recognized that Jesus was probably born in the spring because of how the environment is described in the Bible, it is believed that the church in Rome began formally celebrating Christmas on December 25 in 336 CE, during the reign of the emperor Constantine. Because Constantine had made Christianity the religion of the Roman empire, some have speculated that he chose December 25 to celebrate Jesus’ birth to counteract the established pagan celebrations.
What is Festivus?
December 23 is the date of the unofficial holiday named "Festivus," which was created by writer Daniel O' Keefe in 1966. It was popularized in a 1997 “Seinfeld” episode written by Daniel O’Keefe’s son, Dan O’Keefe.
Festivus is intended to be a non-secular holiday celebrated as an alternative to the pressures and commercialization of the Christmas holiday season. December 23 was chosen as the date for Festivus because it was on that date that Daniel O’Keefe met his future wife, Deborah.
One of the practices of Festivus is the “Airing of Grievances,” where people sit around the dinner table and tell every person there, one at a time, how they have disappointed the speaker.
While I don’t recommend going around and telling people to their faces why they disappointed you this year, I do recommend that you make a list of “grievances for 2022,” some of the things (and maybe the people) that/who really bothered you or hindered you from achieving the goals you set last January. Remembering what went wrong will go a long way toward making things go right next year.
Another Festivus tradition is called the “Feats of Strength.” After the Festivus dinner, the head of the household selects one person at a time who is attending the dinner and challenges that person to a wrestling match. Whoever is pinned first is the loser of the match, but the goal is to pin the head of the household.
Festivus is a real holiday that was started as a family holiday and enhanced on a popular TV show. It is celebrated by a small but growing group of people every December 23rd and can be a weird kind of fun, especially when taken in a tongue-in-cheek way.
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