Winter Solstice 2017: What You Need To Know In Maryland

BALTIMORE, MD — The winter solstice arrives Thursday, marking the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Occurring at the moment the North Pole is tilted the farthest away from the sun, the solstice marks the beginning of the winter and the rebirth of the sun. The solstice occurs in Maryland at 11:27 a.m.

The term solstice is derived from the Latin world "solstitium," which means "sun standing still." On the winter solstice, the sun seems to stand still directly over the Tropic of Capricorn, which is 23.5 degrees south of the equator. During the summer solstice, which occurs in June, the sun is directly over the Tropic of Cancer.

In terms of daylight, the winter solstice is 5 hours, 32 minutes shorter than the summer solstice (in Baltimore, at least).

Several area events are slated this week to celebrate the solstice and usher in the winter:

• Winter Solstice Celebration: 10:30 a.m. to non Dec. 23, at Benjamin Banneker Historical Park & Museum, 300 Oella Ave in Baltimore, Phone: 410-887-1081 Details: Learn about the solstice celebrations from different cultures, including Colonial America. Ages 4 and up. Advanced registration is required.
• Winter Solstice Hike and Campfire: 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm on Dec. 23 at the Anita C. Leight Estuary Center , 700 Otter Point Road, Abingdon. Cost: $4/person or $16/family Phone: 410-612-1688 Details: The winter season is setting in and life near the estuary is slowing down. Venture onto the trails of Leight Park in search of the changes then warm up by a campfire with roasted treats. Participants meet at Pontoon Pier. This program is for ages 6 to adult, under 13 w/adult.
• Winter Solstice Gathering: Tue, December 19, 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM, 4405 East West Highway Suite 601 Bethesda. Join Rabbi Sarah Tasman for a Winter Solstice workshop and gathering to find some peace during the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. The event will include: a special candle lighting ritual for the last night of Hannukah; guided meditation and teachings; creative writing and intention setting for entering the season of winter.

Here are five things to know about the winter solstice:

1. The winter solstice is the oldest known winter celebration. In ancient times, it was both spiritually and scientifically important and marked the changing of the seasons. The best place in the world to observe the winter solstice is at the prehistoric monument Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England, believed to have been erected by ancient Celtic druids to line up the exact position of the sunset on the winter solstice.

2. The winter solstice may explain why Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus in December. The Bible isn't specific about when Jesus was born, and some people believe Dec. 25 may have been selected as the date of Christ's birth by Pope Julius I to replace the ancient pagan Roman midwinter festival called "Saturnalia" with a Christian holiday.

The late Harry Yeide, who taught religion at George Washington University for nearly 50 years and died in 2013, once told National Geographic that as the Christmas celebration moved west, "the date that had been used to celebrate the winter solstice became sort of available for conversion to the observance of Christmas."
Several of the rituals associated with Christmas — dinner feasts, gift-giving and decorative wreaths, for example — are rooted in pagan winter solstice rituals.

3. The earliest sunsets and latest sunrises don't occur on the winter solstice. It seems counterintuitive, but as Earthsky.org explains it, the key is understanding solar noon, the time of day the sun reaches its highest point in the sky. In early December, true solar noon occurs 10 minutes earlier on the clock than it does at the solstice. When true noon occurs later on the solstice, so do the sunrise and sunset times.
"It's this discrepancy between clock time and sun time that causes the Northern Hemisphere's earliest sunset and the Southern Hemisphere's earliest sunrise to precede the December solstice," Earthsky.org says. "The discrepancy occurs primarily because of the tilt of the Earth's axis. A secondary but another contributing factor to this discrepancy between clock noon and sun noon comes from the Earth's elliptical — oblong — orbit around the sun.

"The Earth's orbit is not a perfect circle, and when we're closest to the sun, our world moves fastest in orbit. Our closest point to the sun — or perihelion – comes in early January. So we are moving fastest in orbit around now, slightly faster than our average speed of about 30 kilometers (18.5 miles) per second. The discrepancy between sun time and clock time is greater around the December solstice than the June solstice because we're nearer the sun at this time of year."

4. 'Tis the season for freaky long shadows. Because the sun is at its lowest arc across the horizon, it will cast long shadows. Shadows at noontime on the day of the solstice will be the longest of the year.

5. Full moons and the winter solstice rarely align. The Old Farmer's Almanac said that since it began tracking heavenly events and seasonal changes in 1793, a winter solstice full moon has occurred only 10 times. The next time it will happen is in 2094.

(Photo via Pixabay)
By Beth Dalbey, Patch National Staff
Deb Belt, Patch National Staff, contributed to this article