The darkish days are over! Winter Solstice is at present, marking the shortest day of the yr with simply 7 hours and 49 minutes of daylight

If you’re getting sick of how early it gets dark in the UK, you’ll be happy to hear that the dark days are almost over.

We’ve finally reached the shortest day of the year, known as the Winter Solstice.

The actual moment of the solstice will occur at 09:21 GMT in the UK. 

‘While many focus on the winter solstice as a day in the calendar, what we are actually talking about is a very specific moment which is over almost as soon as it has begun,’ the Met Office epxlained. 

‘The solstice marks the point at which the Sun is exactly overhead the Tropic of Capricorn.’

This year, the shortest day will last precisely 7 hours 49 minutes and 42 seconds in London. 

That’s 8 hours, 49 minutes shorter than the summer solstice – the longest day of the year!

For people in the Northern Hemisphere, today marks the start of astronomical winter, while for people in the Southern Hemisphere, today is the start of summer. 

What is the Winter Solstice? 

As we all know, the apparent position of the Sun in the sky changes throughout the year. 

This occurs because the Earth orbits at an angle of 23.4 degrees on its axis. 

During summer in the northern hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted towards the Sun, and so it receives more direct sunlight and longer daylight hours. 

Meanwhile, during winter in the northern hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted away from the Sun, resulting in fewer daylight hours. 

Solstices occur twice a year, and are known as the ‘summer solstice’ and the ‘winter solstice’. 

‘The summer solstice, which occurs around the 21 June in the Northern Hemisphere, is the day of the year with the longest period of daylight while the winter solstice, on or around the 21 December in the Northern Hemisphere, is the day with the shortest period of daylight,’ the Met Office explained. 

Is this the start of winter?

According to the astronomical definition, today is the start of winter. 

‘The astronomical calendar determines the seasons due to the 23.5 degrees of tilt of the Earth’s rotational axis in relation to its orbit around the Sun,’ the Met Office explained. 

However, many weather forecasters including the Met Office often use a meteorological definition of the seasons. 

Meteorological seasons consist of splitting the seasons into four periods, made up of three months each. 

So by this definition, the first day of winter is always 1 December, ending on 28 (or 29 during a Leap Year) February. 

What does ‘solstice’ mean? 

Like many astronomical terms, the world ‘solstice’ comes from Latin. 

‘Owing to the Sun appearing to “standstill” in the sky when it reaches the Tropic of Capricorn, the word solstitium was used which in turn is composed of the words sol (meaning “sun”) and sistere (meaning to “standstill”),’ the Met Office explained. 

How is the winter solstice celebrated?

The event is celebrated by cultures across the globe.

The Scandinavian festival of Jul is an old tradition, started by the Vikings, to celebrate the return of the sun.

Yule was a festival observed by the Pagans and Germanic people that coincided with the Winter Solstice.

The festival would last 12 days and has given birth to some familiar Christmas traditions will still use today in the UK.

This includes having a Christmas Tree, a Christmas Wreath and a Yule Log.

Here in the UK, Stonehenge is a site of celebration for the winter and solstice.

People visit the site to get a glimpse of the sun as it gleams through the stones, including neo-Druids and neo-Pagans.

The ancient structure was built to frame the sun during the midwinter sunrise and the summer solstice, indicating when the days will start getting longer or shorter.

For ancient cultures, the passage of time was important, particularly for people living around Stonehenge who were farmers growing crops.

In the winter the sun sets to the south-west of the stone circle.