By Umagang Kay Ganda, Dec. 22, 2011
MANILA, Philippines – The country will experience this year’s shortest day and longest night today because of the annual winter solstice.
Winter solstice is an astronomical term regarding the position of the Sun “lying at its farthest point” south of the equator.
Weather bureau PAGASA said total darkness in the country will begin at 5:32 p.m. on December 22 and will end at 6:16 a.m. on December 23.
The winter solstice marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. The sun appears at its lowest point in the sky, and its noontime elevation appears to be the same for several days before and after the solstice. Hence the origin of the word solstice, which comes from Latin solstitium, from sol, “sun” and -stitium, “a stoppage.” Following the winter solstice, the days begin to grow longer and the nights shorter.
In the United States the Solstice occurs on December 22nd at 12:30 AM EST. The Sun’s entry into Capricorn comes in the deep darkness of night with the Moon waning in Scorpio. There certainly seems to be ‘a chill in the collective air’ regarding a lack of warmth and light, thus the trine from Sun to Jupiter holds rays of hope that abundance is a strong potential if we will only perceive it anew and shift our consciousness away from what we don’t have to what we do.
