Welcome the Winter Solstice

Image Source:  Bentobjects via Dark Roasted Blend.

Today (17:11 UTC) marks the winter solstice, the shortest day and longest night, and the onset of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. You can see the gradual lengthening of days, second by second, here.  The winter solstice occurred this year in the Southern Hemisphere on June 21.

On this day, Stonehenge is a magnet for tourist groups, neo-pagans, Wiccans and neo-Druids. From Stonehenge Tours:

Stonehenge is carefully aligned on a sight-line that points to the winter solstice sunset (opposed to New Grange, which points to the winter solstice sunrise, and the Goseck circle, which is aligned to both the sunset and sunrise). It is thought that the Winter Solstice was actually more important to the people who constructed Stonehenge than the Summer Solstice. The Winter Solstice was a time when most cattle were slaughtered (so they would not have to be fed during the winter) and the majority of wine and beer was finally fermented.The exact time for the Winter Solstice is December 21st, 17.11pm (UK time).

See 2006 and 2009 videos of the great Neolithic and Bronze Age site below the jump. The earliest possible date for building at Stonehenge dates from around 3100 BCE. And to bring us back to the present, there's also a video for a 2008 Canadian winter tire ad.

Image Source: Mount Washington Observatory via Greetings May All Your Dreams Come True.

Image Source: Out of Ashes.

Lighthouse covered in ice in Cleveland, Ohio, on Lake Erie (16 December 2010). Image Source: National Geographic.

Image Source: Forum Garden. 
 

Snow in Athens (February 2008). Image Source: Kim Trathen / BBC.

The day before the winter solstice, Stonehenge (2006). Video Source: Youtube. 
 
Winter solstice, Stonehenge (2009). Video Source: Youtube. 

Midas Canadian winter car care commercial (2008). Video Source: Youtube. 

Caption for the above video: "Spoofing a breaking news report, the new national Midas television spot Chase humorously conveys the need for winter tires and the importance of winter car maintenance. Developed by DDB Canada's Vancouver office, the new spot marks Midas first original Canadian broadcast campaign in almost 10 years, as well as their first national marketing activity specifically for their tire products and services. Seasonal tire changes are a ritual for Canadian drivers, says Glenn Root, vice president, Canadian operations, Midas."

See my earlier posts on the Winter Solstice, here (2010), here (2011) - and 2012's solstice, which was supposed to mark the end of the world - here.