I’ll be honest: I always thought that solstice lasted an entire day. But the Met Office explained that it’s actually a “very specific moment which is over almost as soon as it has begun”.
“Solstice” comes from the Latin for “sun standing still” and refers to a moment in which the sun appears to stall in the sky. This year, the winter solstice will happen on December 21 at 8:50am GMT.
It’s the astronomical opposite of the equinox (the next of which is due on Wednesday, 23 September at 1:04am GMT ).
Here’s what the word means, as well as what’s actually happening in the sky when the phenomenon occurs.
What does equinox mean?
Equinox comes from two Latin words: “aequus”, meaning “equal”, and “nox, which means “night”.
Given that daytime and nighttime last roughly the same amount of time in an equinox, the name’s pretty apt.
There is, however, another day when light and dark hours ar...
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