Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year and is more specifically for people who live in the Northern Hemisphere. This day also begins with Pagan's Yule celebration and falls on Dec. 21 or 22 depending on the exact location of the Earth.
The day was once considered as a rebirth of the sun by pagans of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, who celebrated it by merry-making and days-long feasts. The winter solstice occurs the moment the North Pole is tilted furthest away from the sun – 23.5 degrees, to be precise. This year's solstice will occur at 12:19 pm local time on Sunday.
The most prominent place to celebrate winter solstice is at Stonehenge, which attracts thousands of people every year. The Stonehenge is aligned to the sunset on winter solstice.
The following quotes from Brainy Quote highlight the beauty and joys of the winter season.
- "He who marvels at the beauty of the world in summer will find equal cause for wonder and admiration in winter." — John Burroughs
- "Winter blues are cured every time with a potato gratin paired with a roast chicken." — Alexandra Guarnaschelli
- "The winter solstice has always been special to me as a barren darkness that gives birth to a verdant future beyond imagination, a time of pain and withdrawal that produces something joyfully inconceivable, like a monarch butterfly masterfully extracting itself from the confines of its cocoon, bursting forth into unexpected glory." — Gary Zukav
- "I love the scents of winter! For me, it's all about the feeling you get when you smell pumpkin spice, cinnamon, nutmeg, gingerbread and spruce." — Taylor Swift
- "While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best." — Tom Allen
- "Of all the seasons, winter is the most conducive to the great art of dormancy. This art requires an appreciation of semi-consciousness: the beautiful and necessary prelude to sleep - a special pleasure in itself that is all too often neglected, under-valued or looked down upon." — Michael Leunig
- "In winter, the stars seem to have rekindled their fires, the moon achieves a fuller triumph, and the heavens wear a look of a more exalted simplicity. Summer is more wooing and seductive, more versatile and human, appeals to the affections and the sentiments, and fosters inquiry and the art impulse." — John Burroughs
