How often you hear, especially when you listen to weather forecasting that spring begins with the Vernal Equinox that summer starts with the June solstice, autumn with the September Equinox and winter at the December Solstice.
Not so! The solstices and equinoxes are the middles of the seasons marking special points in Earth’s orbit around the sun. December solstice is, for the northern hemisphere, the moment when solar energy is cast least directly on the northern hemisphere, rising as far south as it ever does, moving low across the sky and setting far south of west. It is for us the shortest day of the year with our longest night. The southern hemisphere experiences this when Earth reaches the other side of its orbit six months later in June.
The equinoxes, one in March and the other in September, are the points when the sun rises directly east and sets directly west with equal day and night. This constant variation of sunlight upon our planet is due to the fact that Earth’s rotation axis is tilted 23.5 degrees to its orbital axis. This has everything to do with weather, and thus we experience seasons.
In the Old European World, for example, people knew that in early February the coldest time was waning when days were getting longer with slowly increasing warmth and they recognized this as the start of spring. It was time for preparing fields for planting. Crops sprang up and the sun continued migrating south until at the March equinox when they knew it was mid-spring.
Getting warmer and warmer they celebrated the start of summer in May by dancing around the Maypole. When the sun reached its most northern rising at the June solstice, they rejoiced with midsummer when crops were maturing.
Summer ended and autumn began in early August, a labor-intensive time of nurturing crops. The September mid-autumn equinox began the celebration of harvest, continuing through October until autumns end with what we now recognize as Halloween.
Seeing the apparent demise of living things all around, everyone sensed the onset of the most dreaded time of year. Day after day it got older and colder until mid-winter arrived with the December solstice. People danced around great bonfires with thoughts of assisting the sun to increase light and warmth so that it would turn from its southward plunge and move north again. Sure enough, the sun slowly turned on the horizon amid celebrations of recognition of returning warmth. What a relief it was when winter moved into spring again in early February.
These beginning and ending seasonal points are referred to as “cross-quarter dates.” The mid-point of spring is the vernal equinox, the middle of summer is the summer solstice, middle autumn is the autumnal equinox and winter solstice is mid-winter. For us in northern climes the winter solstice is really the cosmic New Year - the moment when one year dies and the next is born. Winter solstice this year occurs on Saturday, December 21, at 2:21 a.m.
On the evening of December 21, SVO will host its final free public astronomy event for 2024, beginning at 6:30 p.m., at the Jackson Flat Reservoir boat launch parking area. Our 2025 star party calendar has already begun to emerge on our website. For a look ahead, please visit stellarvistaobservatory.org/public-starparties/
Solstice Greetings and a Happy New Year from Stellar Vista Observatory, a coming attraction in 2025 for Kanab and all of Kane County - and yes, for Fredonia and other nearby communities, too.