Winter solstice

This is how the Cambridge dictionary describes a pomegranate: "A round, thick-skinned fruit containing a mass of red seeds and a lot of juice." A mass of seeds could well be a thousand seeds as the Turkish saying goes: I bought one in the market; it turned out to be a thousand at home!

Today, December 21, 2024, marks the winter solstice, also known as the longest night of the year or the shortest day of the year. In Athens, the sun rose at 07:37 and set at 17:09, resulting in a day that lasted just 9 hours and 31 minutes.

Today marks the commencement of astronomical summer in the Northern Hemisphere with the summer solstice, a significant event in Earth's annual orbit around the Sun. According to reports from USA Today, this year's solstice is noteworthy as it is the earliest occurrence in 228 years.

Citizens in the Thracian province of Kırklareli celebrated the thousand-year-old Balkan tradition of "Koleda," a kind of Balkan Halloween believed to expel evil spirits.

Many people came together in the Büyükmandıra town of Babaeski district for the tradition, which is celebrated on the coldest days of winter with different names in various parts of Thrace.

This morning, at 5:27 a.m., the astronomical onset of winter commenced, marking the start of the winter solstice as well. As per the Institute of Astronomy's calendar, this day signifies the sun's southernmost position for the year. Today's sunrise is at 7:53 a.m., while sunset is expected at 4:55 p.m., providing a daylight duration of 9 hours and 2 minutes between December 20 and 24.

Today at 12.02 pm the astronomical winter arrives and the winter solstice. With the winter solstice comes the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere and the shortest day in the southern part of the world.

Shortly after 6 pm, it will be possible to observe the conjunction of the two largest planets in the solar system, Jupiter and Saturn.

1. Christmas in December

December in the northern hemisphere is the darkest of all months. As midwinter advent solstice days get shorter, nights get longer and colder. All one needs is the warmth of the glow of a fire. As each night gets darker, we need another candle to lift our spirits, another log in the fire to warm our hearts.