Winter Solstice

At exactly 12:04 p.m. UT (3:04 a.m. Eastern Standard Time) on December 21, the Sun will have reached its most southerly declination. Over the past six months, for the folks in the northern hemisphere, the every day peak of the Sun’s arc across the daytime sky has gotten lower. At 12:04 UT it reached its lowest point. Tomorrow, and now every day until June 21, the Sun will be a bit higher in the sky at local noon. June 21 at 05:45 UT, and be at the highest point it can get. Then the process reverses again.

We call those points in time the solstices.

The Winter Solstice has always been a time of celebration, because ancient people were intricately tied to the goings on of the sky. Their constant sky-watching was tied to a life in agriculture. The stars were their calender, GPS, and DirecTV. It might have helped that there was zero light pollution, save for a cloudy night here and there. The people of that time knew that the Winter Solstice signaled that the Sun had begun it's new cycle of life. Eventually spring - and more importantly, food - would return. The promise of another growing season would be fulfilled.

You and I celebrate the Solstice in modern times, too. Perhaps you didn't notice? See, we’re far more sophisticated these days - we cover up this ancient pagan sun worship with more important religious customs that celebrate virgin births during the Roman census 2000 back and also (for some reason) a modern mythological tale involving a fat man in a red suit who bends time and space with his flying livestock in order to give away plastic trinkets to well behaved toddlers.

You know, I think I'll stick to the sun worship, thanks.

Or maybe just Wookie Life Day?