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Merry Midwinter Solstice

I always thought the Solstice / shortest day of the year was December 21st?

Does it shift about then?
 
Longest day In the southern half. My Mum's birthday too. HB to Techy, escargot. Many happy returns.
 
Winter solstice 2015 may be as warm as this year's summer solstice, Met Office says
Forecasters predict it could also be the mildest 22 December since records began
Adam Withnall

Some parts of Britain could be as warm during the winter solstice this year as they were on the summer solstice in June, forecasters have said.
Falling on 22 December, the shortest day of 2015 looks set to be record-breakingly mild, with temperatures in excess of 16C possible across south-east England.
A spokesperson for the Met Office told The Independent that temperatures in some parts of Britain have already beaten the high of 14C recorded in Glasgow on 21 June.
And the MeteoGroup forecasting organisation said even before 8am this morning that 15C was recorded at London City Airport and 14.3C at Heathrow.

The Met Office said temperatures varied across regions, but Carlisle was expected to reach a high of around 14C - similar to the 14.9C recorded there in June.
Glasgow itself was predicted to fall just a couple of degrees short of the temperature in June, with a similar picture seen in Bristol, Newcastle, Nottingham and elsewhere.
A spokesperson said it was also “finely balanced” as to whether or not today would be the hottest 22 December since records began.

The Greater London area is the most likely to beat the record of 16.1C set at Hoylake, Merseyside, in 1910.

etc...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-solstice-met-office-uk-weather-a6782736.html
 
Yes, we are noticing a bit later sunset. So HAPPY [slightly longer] BOXING DAY!
And we had a fine Boxing Day--a box of several bottles of wine and some fudge from my sister. In my fam, the boxes are full of regifting and we are pleased to be regifted with unwanted wines. She was pleased with the first-gifted oil cured olives because she's shy about ethnic grocery stores.
 
Just six hours to go. We'll all have to hold-on tight, from about 10.43 to 10.45hrs GMT (for us northerners, anyway).

I usually stand, to reduce the feeling of nausea during the backswing.

So saying, most of the good seats will have been taken already.

I usually don't bother trying to balance a pencil/egg/budget and all that stuff during the good old 'Stice' itself, I tend to leave that nowadays to the young thrillseekers that run with the bulls / have Amazon Prime / wear Superdry.

You never think you'll get too old for these massive social bonding events, but sometimes the best place to be is just inside, with yourself, and a good strong wall to hold on to....

Anyway, all the best for when it comes.

And not too much vodka and popcorn before lunch (unless that's all part of your church, to which I say namaste....)
 
West Cornwall residents ready to celebrate Penzance's world famous Montol Festival in style
By Tom_Gainey | Posted: December 20, 2016

A healthy dose of misrule will return to Penzance on Wednesday December 21 as the town once again celebrates the mid-winter solstice with its popular Montol celebrations and organisers say that it is set to be the "biggest and best yet" thanks to an incredibly successful Crowdfunder campaign.

In October Cornwall Live told you that the team behind the challenge of bringing one of Cornwall's most atmospheric festivals to Penzance this December needed your support – you did not let the traditional celebrations down and thanks to your generosity the festival, now in its 10th year, will survive.
128 "backers" helped smash the £4,000 target by raising £500 more than hoped in just 49 days.
"We are absolutely delighted to achieve our target" said Simon Reed, director of the Cornish Culture Association, who organise Montol.

"The target was boosted by a £1000 donation from the Crowdfunder Heritage Lottery Fund and a number of generous donations including from local firm Penzance Taxis.

"This year's Montol Festival occurs as always on the 21st of December.
"So come along, bring your friends and family, shop, eat, drink and be merry and enjoy Penzance's very own unique brand of winter fun, the biggest Montol yet."

The festival is a revival and reinterpretation of many of the traditional Cornish midwinter customs – such as Guise Dancing where many will don traditional masks, disguises and mock formal costumes - practiced in and around the Penzance area and common to much of Cornwall at one point.

Montol never fails to bring a wealth of people into the town to observe the winter solstice – Mr Reed has spoken before about how "very impressed" he has been with how far the event has come since its inception.
When they first started they only had about fifteen people in Venetian masks - but last year preparations began in July and they had fantastic support from a strong set of members.
People came from all over the world to celebrate in Penzance last year; one person came from Montreal, Canada.

St Thomas' Market, which used to be held in the 19th Century as an unchartered fair, will provide a new feature of the festival and will take place in Market Jew Street from 1-8pm.

This year the entire town centre will be closed to traffic from 11am to 10.30pm, allowing members of the public the chance to enjoy the entertainment and to wander the shops and markets for last minute gift buying in independent shops and market stalls.
They can also discover an array of food and drink in the market and local cafes and eateries and have a chance to spend a leisurely day around the town with family and friends.

etc...

http://www.cornwalllive.com/west-co...celebrations/story-29998284-detail/story.html
 
Decided to stay up to bring in the Solstice. :) it's very dark out, with a clear starry sky. 42 F (6C) which is a heck of a lot warmer than it was the other night, so that's good.

I know the Winter solstice is nowhere near as dramatic round here as in other parts of the world - there's only about 3 hours difference in sunlight hours in Winter as in Summer, and the sun only scootches over just a bit in the sky. Still, thete's certain dates I like to observe, and this is one of them.

Merry Winter Solstice, everyone!
 
Down here in these latitudes, no obvious seasonal differences mark the year's passing; there is only the regular diurnal dimming and lightening to portend the onset of another day in the eternal equatorial now. I can't say I am particularly missing observing the obvious cycle of the year that I enjoyed/endured in Northern England: maybe that's another thing, like marmite and Heinz baked beans, that is only a fixture in the armoire of grievances of longer-served expats pale-skinned economic migrants than I. Ask me again in a few years, inshallah.

Meanwhile, where- and with whomever you happen to be meeting the Solstice, may you do so with great merriment and joy.
 
rynner2 said:
All you need to know
Click to expand...
Ah. Nearly all.

Now, I've always been aware of what's called the 'precession of the equinoxes'. After having read this....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axial_precession
.... I realise that this expression does not mean what I thought it did.

I had always thought (wrongly....I think?) that due to inter-relational planetary movements (of the Earth, relative to the Sun), eventually it would be the case that the calendrical monuments of the ancients, such as Stongehenge/ Maes Howe etc, would over time become misaligned relative to solar movements.

I'm going to unconfidently-say that I think that I may be referring astronomically to what astrologers might call an 'age' or possibly an epoch(??). Maybe the astronomical terms are the same....?

Am I totally misunderstanding this? Are these massive monumental stone solar markers....
  • already at least slightly misaligned (relative to the intentions of their builders), or;
  • exactly on-target and not off-beam to any degree (!) at all (and: either never will be mis-angled, OR will drift at rates outwith the timeline for our collective existence
I'm not confident enough in my understanding of all of this, to derive an answer. Yet there must be one.

But I've a vague recollection that, somewhere, certain paleoastronomical markers were now wrong, over the aggregated passage of time. Though that's maybe the star ecliptic, with a different asolar almanac adherence.

At this point my head has fallen off.

So what's the answer? Is Stonehenge etc now behind the times, heliometrically? Or not?
 
Now there is controversy about the "roof-box" and other possible Iron Age additions at Newgrange.

Newgrange sun trap may be only 50 years old, says archaeologist

Evidence solstice monument was Iron Age ‘Hiberno-Roman cult site’ was ‘underplayed’

Trapping the winter solstice sun at Newgrange in Co Meath is not a 5,000-year-old phenomenon, but a 50-year-old “construct”, according to a former State archaeologist.

Our Stone Age ancestors were not as clever as we thought, and the significance of Newgrange as a “Hiberno-Roman” cult site in the late Iron Age has been deliberately underplayed, Michael Gibbons, co-author of a paper on the subject, argues.

Newgrange’s alignment, which captures the rising sun during the winter solstice period around December 21st, has made it one of the world’s best known megalithic tombs.

If skies are clear during sunrises from December 19th to 23rd, a narrow beam of light penetrates its “roof-box”, reaches the chamber floor and extends gradually to illuminate the entire chamber over 1 7-minute period – marking new life at the turn of the year.

However, in an article published in archaeological journal Emania, Mr Gibbons and his nephew Myles take issue with the excavation and reconstruction work carried out on the passage tomb half a century ago by the late Prof Michael O’Kelly, including the famous “roof box” for trapping the sunlight – said to be 5,000 years old.

Mr Gibbons, an independent archaeologist based in Connemara, is a former co-director of the Office of Public Works (OPW) national sites and monuments record office.

Discovery of “high value” Roman artefacts inside and outside the tomb, along with remains of dogs and horses, point to an Iron Age burial site dedicated to an “Irish elite” with links to Roman Britain, the Gibbons paper argues. ...

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/irel...nly-50-years-old-says-archaeologist-1.2913483
 
Remember to be holding-on to something solid at 16.28hrs GMT/UTC today, for the winter solstice (or...maybe wait until Wednesday, 3 January 2018 for the perihelion itself). I apologise to our southern hemispheric comrades, for whom this summary is silly (and, summarily summery)

Alternatively, all just stay in bed until Friday 22 Dec.....does the southern hemisphere get a better horoscope, I wonder?

Because today is, astrologically-speaking, a Bad Day

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5191403/The-Winter-Solstice-2017-worst-day-year.html

The worst is yet to come! Astrologers warn that the Winter Solstice will be the most AWFUL day of 2017, thanks to a rare cosmic occurrence that hasn't happened in 350 years
By Olivia Elgart For Dailymail.com19:31, 18 Dec 2017, updated 22:20, 18 Dec 2017
Click to expand...
  • December 21, the Winter Solstice, is predicted to be the worst day of 2017
  • For the first time since 1664, the Sun moves into Capricorn, hours after Saturn makes the same exact shift, causing the sun and Saturn to actually line up
  • Astrologers advise the people avoid making any important decisions or taking drastic actions as they may result in bad consequences for 2018
Click to expand...

The Winter Solstice is literally and figuratively going to be the darkest day of the year, and it's all thanks to a rare cosmic incident that hasn't occurred in over 350 years.
As if December hasn't been crazy enough, what with the erratic weather and Mercury going into retrogade, it is, according to astrologers, only going to get worse, with December 21 predicted to be the most horrendous day yet of 2017.

Neil Spencer, an astrologer and author, revealed that this year's Solstice is different from others in the past, because for the first time since 1664, the Sun will move into Capricorn, mere hours after Saturn makes the same exact shift; this will cause the sun and Saturn to actually line up, a phenomenon which is expected to have very uncomfortable consequences....(see link)
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On this day of the solstice hibernal,
For us northern folk cold and nocturnal,
Give a thought as you pause
For our friends down in Oz
Where the temps are now damn near infernal.


Merry Solstice to all, and to all renewed light!
 
Ermintruder said:
Remember to be holding-on to something solid at 16.28hrs GMT/UTC today, for the winter solstice (or...maybe wait until Wednesday, 3 January 2018 for the perihelion itself). I apologise to our southern hemispheric comrades, for whom this summary is silly (and, summarily summery)

Alternatively, all just stay in bed until Friday 22 Dec.....does the southern hemisphere get a better horoscope, I wonder?

Because today is, astrologically-speaking, a Bad Day

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5191403/The-Winter-Solstice-2017-worst-day-year.html
Click to expand...

Yet another ringing endorsement of the not at all made up astrology.
 
GNC said:
Yet another ringing endorsement of the not at all made up astrology.
Click to expand...

I still have not yet followed-through with my promise to do that retrospective life-vs-predictions 'reveal' (based upon my unopened-for-nearly-30yrs professional horoscope I refound recently).

Ideally I'll get some time during Xmastide (ha, as if, damn you, cruel offlineworld) to re-relocate it, and report back to the Forum upon it's astounding or underwhelming accuracies/inaccuracies (as appropriate)
 
Ermintruder said:
I still have not yet followed-through with my promise to do that retrospective life-vs-predictions 'reveal' (based upon my unopened-for-nearly-30yrs professional horoscope I refound recently).

Ideally I'll get some time during Xmastide (ha, as if, damn you, cruel offlineworld) to re-relocate it, and report back to the Forum upon it's astounding or underwhelming accuracies/inaccuracies (as appropriate)
Click to expand...

I've mentioned this book before, but I held onto a tome called The Book of Predictions from 1980 which is just what it says. The professional astrologers' predictions are laughably off. Remember when Fidel Castro got his own chat show? Thought not.

It'll be interesting to see what you find out with your chart.
 
GNC said:
I've mentioned this book before, but I held onto a tome called The Book of Predictions from 1980 which is just what it says. The professional astrologers' predictions are laughably off. Remember when Fidel Castro got his own chat show? Thought not.
Click to expand...

That book rings a bell, not sure if it was your mention of it or if I've seen it myself now. Was it American?

Jess Stearn's The Door to the Future was partly about prediction. I read it before any of the outrageous piffle it foresaw was due, except perhaps the rising of Atlantis from the seabed - 'Expect it in '68 or '69! Not so far away!'
None of the predictions it recounted has come true, except perhaps the rise of China.
 
I'm here in Chengdu, where apparently it's traditional to eat dumplings on midwinter solstice. I don't need encouraging.
 
Vid at link.

WATCH: Winter Solstice at Newgrange
Thursday, December 21, 2017 - 07:04 am

For the first time ever, people all over the world can watch Newgrange illuminate on the shortest day of the year. Every year a handful of lottery winners witness the spectacle but this year it will also be livestreamed from the County Meath site.m The event is weather dependent, though, as skies must be clear.

Leontia Lenehan from the Office of Public Works said this year is particularly special. This is the 50th anniversary of Professor O'Kelly seeing the light in Newgrange for the first time," she said. That was in 1967. "The roof box above the doorway which allows the sun to enter was rediscovered in the second year of excavation in the 1963 but Prof O'Kelly had to wait until 1967, due to bad weather," she added.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breaki...e-at-newgrange-to-be-livestreamed-819717.html
 
escargot said:
That book rings a bell, not sure if it was your mention of it or if I've seen it myself now. Was it American?
Click to expand...

It was, though not all the contributors were (anyone from scientists to woo woo clairvoyants). It was from the same people who brought us The Book of Lists, those huge fact collections that must have been a gift to pub quiz compilers.
 
Merry Midwinter Solstice 2018!

Visitors gathered at the Neolithic Passage Tomb at Newgrange in Co Meath to celebrate the winter solstice.

In clear conditions, the dawn sunlight illuminates the inner chamber of the 5,000-year-old tomb. It has been a central ritual in the pagan belief system for thousands of years. The guests were selected by ballot in September from over 28,000 applications.

Although the sun was obscured by cloud, visitors from as far as the United States, Denmark and United Kingdom as well as Ireland enjoyed the unique experience of the solstice. The event comes as it emerged that the very dry summer of 2018 revealed details of stunning archaeological monuments which became visible for the first time as cropmarks in the parched fields of the River Boyne floodplain.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/break...lly-sea-dips-mark-winter-solstice-893594.html
 
Ermintruder said:
I still have not yet followed-through with my promise to do that retrospective life-vs-predictions 'reveal' (based upon my unopened-for-nearly-30yrs professional horoscope I refound recently).

Ideally I'll get some time during Xmastide (ha, as if, damn you, cruel offlineworld) to re-relocate it, and report back to the Forum upon it's astounding or underwhelming accuracies/inaccuracies (as appropriate)
Click to expand...

did I miss this? :)
 
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