The solstice — “sun still” — is Wednesday at 11:35 AM MST.
In the northern hemisphere, today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year and the longest night. It’s officially the first day of winter and one of the oldest known holidays in human history. Anthropologists believe that solstice celebrations go back at least 30,000 years, before humans even began farming on a large scale. The stone circles of Stonehenge were arranged to receive the first rays of midwinter sun.
Ancient peoples believed that because daylight was waning, it might go away forever, so they lit huge bonfires to tempt the sun to come back. The tradition of decorating our houses and our trees with lights at this time of year is passed down from those ancient bonfires.
In Ancient Rome, the winter solstice was celebrated with the festival of Saturnalia, during which all business transactions and even war were suspended, and slaves were waited upon by their masters.
Astronomically, the solstice is the moment when the sun reaches its most northerly (June) or southerly (December) point in the sky.
The Astronomy Picture of the Day has a nice illustration of Sunrise by Season.
Living in such a northern clime, we look forward to the winter solstice because it means the days will finally begin to get longer again. In fact, we’ve been counting the days until the solstice the way some people count down to Christmas.