For many of us, today is the last day of work before the Christmas break. It’s also officially the longest day of the year. Somehow, those two facts are unconnected, because today is the summer solstice. But what is the summer solstice? What does that mean for us? And why does the word “solstice” make you think of Christmas?
What is the summer solstice?
The summer solstice occurs when the southern hemisphere is at its fullest tilt towards the sun. Australia usually feels like it’s in the sun around January/February, at peak bushfire season, and yet the summer solstice usually hits between 21-23 December each year.
Although being fully angled towards the sun means that today is the longest day (in that we’ll get maximum sunlight today, so it truly is Christmas for the sad cacti on your windowsill), the summer solstice is not an all-day thing. The solstice specifically refers to when we’re at our closest to the sun. In the case of Sydney, Melbourne, Hobart and Canberra, that’s at 5:50PM, according to WeatherZone. If you live in one of the other states that either don’t do daylight saving, or major bands rarely visit on tour, and want to convert that into your timezone, the Time and Date made a handy chart (though they have the summer solstice listed as 2:27pm, for some reason).
What does that mean for us?
In the olden times pagans would light bonfires and jump over them to ward off demons and bring good luck to lovers, but that probably goes against total fire bans these days. Climate change really does ruin everything.
According to Ronald Hutton, a history Professor at the University of Bristol (on the UK National Trust site), “[Midsummer was seen as] a time when the normal laws of nature or divinity could be suspended, when spirits and fairies could contact humans, when humans could exceed the usual limitations of their world.”
In 2023, though, it just means you get maximum daylight. Bad for your curtains, good for wanting to go for a bike ride after you’ve finished all your work for the day and then maybe have some fish and chips on the beach.
Interestingly, it doesn’t mean the earliest sunrise or earliest sunset of the year, though. They happen on different days. According to this ABC article, the earliest sunrise in Brisbane, for instance, is on the 2nd or 3rdof December at 4:45am, whereas in Melbourne (the land of daylight saving), ours was 5:51am on the 8th of December. The latest sunset this year already happened back in January. 8:52pm in Hobart on January 3rd or 7:19pm in Darwin on the 24th or 25th of January, for example.
Why does the word “solstice” make you think of Christmas?
Because originally Christmas replaced the pre-Christian pagan celebration of the winter solstice in the northern hemisphere. Some people (like the Romans) used the winter solstice to celebrate the birthday of their sun god, whereas others used it as an opportunity to fast and repent their sins. Lots of religions found meaning in the extended darkness, and then colonisation meant that those traditions were later transplanted into the southern hemisphere where they didn’t make as much sense.
The origin of Christmas and the choice of date of the 25th of December is obviously a much larger conversation, but the timing of the solstice plays a role.