When is shortest day of the year 2011

Street processions are a common feature on this day in Japan and Ireland. No need to wait until next weekend to score sweet sales on gadgets, gear. The Vancouver-based entrepreneur behind the app Shop This City hopes to remove the barrier between customers and small local businesses by offering a searchable, up-to-date display of a business's available inventory and styles.

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Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. The Talmud recognizes the winter solstice as "Tekufat Tevet. Until the 16th century, the winter months were a time of famine in northern Europe.

Most cattle were slaughtered so that they wouldn't have to be fed during the winter, making the solstice a time when fresh meat was plentiful. Most celebrations of the winter solstice in Europe involved merriment and feasting. In pre-Christian Scandinavia, the Feast of Juul , or Yule , lasted for 12 days celebrating the rebirth of the sun god and giving rise to the custom of burning a Yule log.

In ancient Rome, the winter solstice was celebrated at the Feast of Saturnalia , to honor Saturn, the god of agricultural bounty. Lasting about a week, Saturnalia was characterized by feasting, debauchery and gift-giving. With Emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity, many of these customs were later absorbed into Christmas celebrations. One of the most famous celebrations of the winter solstice in the world today takes place in the ancient ruins of Stonehenge, England.

And in A. Among the many varied customs linked with this special season for thousands of years, the exchanging of gifts is almost universal. Mother Nature herself offers the sky observer in north temperate latitudes the two gifts of longest nights and a sky more transparent than usual.

One reason for the clarity of a winter's night is that cold air cannot hold as much moisture as warm air can. Hence, on many nights in the summer, the warm moisture-laden atmosphere causes the sky to appear hazier. By day it is a milky, washed-out blue, which in winter becomes a richer, deeper and darker shade of blue.

For observers in northern locations, this only adds more luster to that part of the sky containing the beautiful wintertime constellations. Indeed, the brilliant stars and constellations that now adorn our evening sky, such as Sirius, Orion, Capella, Taurus and many others is seemingly Nature's holiday decoration to commemorate the winter solstice and enlighten the long cold nights of winter.

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