DecSolsticeBorn

December Solstice: Astronomically, solstice is the two moments in the year when the Sun’s apparent path is farthest north (summer solstice) or south (winter solstice) from Earth’s Equator. In the Northern Hemisphere the summer solstice occurs on June 20 or 21 and the winter solstice on December 21 or 22. In the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are exactly reversed. The shortest day/longest night occurs at the winter solstice (called “Midwinter”), while the longest day/shortest night occurs at the summer solstice (called Midsummer”). For 2019 in the Northern Hemisphere, winter solstice occurred on Saturday, December 21 at 11:19pm EST.

Historically, the winter solstice, was a time to feast and make merry. For example, pre-Christian Scandinavians, Celts and Germanic peoples lit fires and burned Yule logs as a symbolic means of conquering darkness, banishing evil spirits that lurked in the darkness and bringing luck and good fortune for the coming year. Cattle and other animals were slaughtered followed by feasting on what was the last fresh meat for several months. Pre-Islamic Iranians celebrated “Yalda” on winter solstice. This feast heralds the birth of the ancient sun god Mithra and his triumph over darkness. Zoroastrians believed that evil spirits wandered the Earth and the forces of the destructive spirit Ahriman were strongest on winter solstice. To foil these evil spirits they gathered together all night for feasting and sharing poetry, songs and stories.

Even today during this literally darkest time of the year, we practice ways to banish evil spirits and welcome good luck by:

1) Staying up most of the night with family and friends eating, talking and sharing stories
(televised or live), and songs/music and games in order to avoid any brushes with dark entities.

2) Lighting candles, fireplaces, bonfires or even electric lights to banish darkness.

3) Decorating our homes with symbols of life -- plants and greenery especially evergreens.
(Combine with 2 above and you have the Christmas tree and wreaths)

4) Showing our gratitude for the people around us with small gifts.

5) Weakening or banishing evil by doing kind and selfless deeds for others.


Rare Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn. A rare conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn took place on December 21, 2020. This rare conjunction of these two planets is known as a great conjunction. The last great conjunction occurred in the year 2000. The two bright planets appeared only 7 arc minutes of each other in the night sky. They were so close that they appeared to make a bright double planet in the western sky just after sunset.

In astronomy, "conjunctions" are meetings of planets and other objects on our sky’s dome. "Great conjunctions" are meetings of Jupiter and Saturn, which are the two biggest planets in our solar system. Though the two planets appeared close together, they were actually 456 million miles (734 million km) apart. Saturn was nearly twice as far away as Jupiter. Jupiter-Saturn conjunctions happen every 20 years. The last one was in the year 2000. But they are not all the same. The 2020 great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn was the closest to Earth since 1623 and the closest observable since 1226! 2020’s extra-close Jupiter-Saturn conjunction will not be matched again until the Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of March 15, 2080!


Ursids Meteor Shower. The Ursids is a minor meteor shower producing about 5-10 meteors per hour. It is produced by dust grains left behind by the comet Tuttle, which was first discovered in 1790. The shower runs annually from December 17-25. It peaked in December 2020 on the the night of the 21st and morning of the 22nd. Meteors radiated from the constellation Ursa Minor, but could appear anywhere in the night sky.

Sources
https://www.britannica.com/science/solstice
https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/holydays/wintersolstice.shtml
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/72659/10-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-winter-solstice
https://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/great-jupiter-saturn-conjunction-dec-21-2020#:~:text=Jupiter%2DSaturn%20conjunctions%20happen%20every,the%20closest%20observable%20since%201226!
http://www.seasky.org/astronomy/astronomy-calendar-current.html

Image: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OX0fASvkEs