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It may feel like the days can't get any shorter, but we still haven't yet reached the winter solstice , which is the shortest day of the year.
The solstice marks the moment the sun shines at its most southern point, directly over the Tropic of Capricorn.
It been celebrated by pagans for thousands of years, and many of the traditions now associated with Christmas had their roots in winter solstice celebrations - including the Christmas tree.
(Image: Getty)
The world might look pretty grim now, but remember: as soon as the solstice has passed, the days will start getting longer again and you can start looking forward to Spring.
Here's your guide to the darkest day of the year - and a few reasons to be cheerful about it.
What is the winter solstice?
The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year and the official beginning of winter.
The solstice itself is the moment the sun is shining farthest to the south, directly over the Tropic of Capricorn.
(Image: PA)
When is the Winter Solstice?
The date of the winter solstice is different every year, falling between December 20th and 23rd.
This year, the solstice will occur on Thursday, December 21. The sun will rise in the UK at 08:03 GMT and set at 15:53 GMT, giving just 7 hours and 50 minutes of daylight.
Traditions and rituals
The winter solstice is a major pagan festival, with rituals of rebirth having been celebrated for thousands of years.
Every year revellers gather at Stonehenge to watch the sunrise on the shortest day.
(Image: PA)
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Many of the traditions we now think of as being part of Christmas - including Yule logs, mistletoe and Christmas trees - have their roots in the pagan celebrations of winter solstice.
Wait, the Christmas tree was originally a winter solstice tree?
Sort of. The Druids - the priests of the ancient Celts - used evergreen trees , holly and mistletoe as symbols of everlasting life during winter solstice rituals.
Cutting them down and putting them in their homes would have been too destructive to nature.
But when Saint Boniface, also known as Winfrith of Crediton, found a group of pagans worshipping an oak tree in 8th Century Germany, he cut the tree down.
Some say he then planted a fir tree on the spot after the pagans converted - others that a fir tree sprang up on the spot.
Myth has it the converted pagans in the region returned the following year to decorate the fir tree.
Will the days start getting longer again?
Yes. After the solstice, the days will gradually get longer until the summer solstice on Thursday, 21 June 2018.
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On Dec. 21, or Thursday this year, the sun will hug the horizon. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, it will seem to barely rise — hardly peeking above a city’s skyline or a forest’s snow-covered evergreens — before it swiftly sets.
For months, the orb’s arc across the sky has been slumping, shortening each day.
In New York City, for example, the sun will be in the sky for just over nine hours — roughly six hours less than in June at the summer solstice. The winter solstice marks the shortest day of the year, before the sun reverses course and climbs higher into the sky. (At the same time, places like Australia in the Southern Hemisphere mark the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.)
This is a good opportunity to imagine what such a day might look like if we had evolved on another planet where the sun would take a different dance across the sky. You might want to feel thankful for the solstices and seasons we do have, or we might not be here to witness them at all.
The solstices occur because most planets do not spin upright, or perpendicular to their orbits.
The Earth, for example, slouches 23.5 degrees on a tilted axis. This leaves the planet’s North Pole pointed toward the North Star over relatively long periods of time, even as Earth makes its yearlong migration around the sun. That means the Northern Hemisphere will spend half the year tilted slightly toward the sun, bathing in direct sunlight during summer’s long, blissful days, and half the year cooling off as it leans slightly away from the sun during winter’s short, frigid days. Dec. 21 marks the day when the North Pole is most tilted away from the sun.
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But every planet slouches at different angles.
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The axial tilt of Venus, for example, is so extreme — 177 degrees — that the planet is essentially flipped upside down with its South Pole pointing up. Perhaps counter-intuitively, that means that there’s very little tilt to its upside-down spin and its hemispheres will never dramatically point toward or away from the sun. As such, the sun’s dance across the sky will remain relatively stable — shifting by a mere six degrees over the course of a Venusian year.
EVERY year the longest and shortest days are marked by a solstice when people celebrate the astronomical phenomenon by watching the sun rise.
But when is the winter solstice and what does it all mean? We've got the lowdown...
Alamy Winter solstice is on December 21 each year
When is the winter solstice in 2017?
The winter solstice is on December 21 and is the "shortest" day of the year and marks the start of the winter period.
This is because the tilt of the Earth’s axis is least aligned with the sun, providing us with the least daylight of the year.
After December 21, the nights will begin to get shorter as our planet rotates towards the sun.
The date where Earth is the nearest to the star is marked by the summer solstice.
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What time is sunset on the shortest day of the year?
On the shortest day of the year, the sun is due to set VERY early, sinking below the horizon in the UK at around 3:54pm depending on your exact location.
You can check the precise times in your area using this sunset calendar.
Alamy People flock to Stonehenge to celebrate the winter solstice every year
What happens at Stonehenge on the winter solstice?
Every year in December visitors from around the world flock to Stonehenge to mark the winter solstice.
Early in the morning on December 21, astronomical phenomenon is celebrated by visitors who gather to see the sunrise above the stones.
The sunrise on the day is at 8.04am.
The organisers of the event write on their website: "The Winter Solstice is the most important day of the year at Stonehenge and a truly magical time to be there.
"It's an ad hoc celebration that brings together England's New Age Tribes (neo-druids, neo-pagans, Wiccans) with ordinary families, tourists, travelers and party people - 100's of them!"
00:35 Why Winter Should Start December 1st Meteorologist Domenica Davis explains why meteorological winter starts on December 1st
At a Glance The winter solstice is just a moment of time, astronomically speaking.
The least amount of possible daylight hours occurs on the winter solstice.
On Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017, the winter solstice marks the official astronomical start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
However, many of you already have seen at least some cold and snow for weeks prior to the winter solstice.
(MORE: Winter Storm Central )
So let's walk through what the winter solstice actually means.
Orientation of the sun's most direct rays relative to the Earth's tilt around the time of the Northern Hemisphere's winter solstice.
A Tilted Earth Gives Us Our Seasons
Looking from space, the Earth isn't aligned in such a way that a line going through the planet's poles is vertical.
Rather, the Earth has a tilt of roughly 23.5 degrees off a vertical axis.
Because of that tilt, the Northern and Southern hemispheres are tilted either toward or away from the sun at different times of the year as the Earth makes its orbit around its closest star.
As a result, the most direct sunlight shifts between a band of latitudes, specifically between the Tropic of Cancer and Tropical of Capricorn, throughout the year, leading to the change of seasons seen in the middle and higher latitudes.
Typical possible daylight hours at the December (Northern Hemisphere's winter) solstice.
The Solstice: One Moment in Time
Typically around Dec. 21 or 22 – though on rare occasions, it can be as early as Dec. 20 or as late as Dec. 23 – the sun is directly overhead at the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5 degrees south latitude).
That precise instant in time – in 2017, at 11:28 a.m. EST on Dec. 21 – is the solstice.
(MORE: Why Winter Should Really Start on December 1 )
Around the time of the winter solstice, the sun is farthest south in the sky at noon in the Northern Hemisphere. Less direct solar radiation means less heating of the ground in the winter hemisphere.
The day of the winter solstice features the least amount of possible daylight hours and the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere. The reverse is true in the Southern Hemisphere.
Below are some sunrise and sunset times for the December 2017 (Northern Hemisphere winter) solstice:
Sunrise Sunset Possible Daylight Time New York 7:16 a.m. 4:32 p.m. 9 h 16 m Miami 7:03 a.m. 5:35 p.m. 10 h 32 m Chicago 7:15 a.m. 4:23 p.m. 9 h 8 m Dallas 7:26 a.m. 5:25 p.m. 9 h 59 m Los Angeles 6:55 a.m. 4:48 p.m. 9 h 53 m Fairbanks 10:58 a.m. 2:41 p.m. 3 h 43 m
Soon after the winter solstice, the number of daylight hours in the Northern Hemisphere will gradually grow longer each day until the summer solstice in late June, when the greatest amount of daylight hours occurs.
(MORE: Winter, Early-Spring Temperature Outlook )
