Solstice! Solstice! Solstice!!!!
posted in Alaska, Winter |I could so easily become a true pagan here in Alaska. I woke up this morning and knew it was the day of the winter solstice…and I felt like dancing. I felt like carefully nursing a flame awake from a coal saved the day before, in symbolic token of the flame in the sky that will grow again. I felt like turning somersaults, or zipping from room to room yelling “YIPPEE!!!”, or just jumping up and down in incoherent glee.
I posted it on Facebook. I posted it on Twitter. And here I am, posting it on the ol’ bloggeroo.
I have so much sympathy and understanding for all those northern European folk who were really into winter solstice celebrations. Yes, this is the official “start” of winter. Hereabouts, though, winter has been here since early November (much later than usual). Yes, winter will hang around for four more months. But at least the darkness will disappear!
Just for general information, here’s what the sun was doing today:
At its height—around 1 p.m.—the sun got a whopping 5-1/2 degrees above the horizon (as noted in the graphic). Flip the graph over and that’s what it’ll be on the summer solstice (or thereabouts).
I’m happy, happy, happy. Yeah, it’ll still be dark for a long time tomorrow. And the day after. And after that. But y’know what? By mid-January, the day will be getting longer by leaps and bounds—five or six minutes per day.
To celebrate, go check out Starts With A Bang; he’s got some really cool pictures—time-lapse photos of the sun at winter solstice, plus a nifty year-long time-lapse showing the analemma that the sun moves through over the year.
