The winter solstice is here. Today marks the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere, while last night was the longest night of the year. This has been an important event for millennia, with evidence of celebrations going back as far as 10,000 BCE. Some of the world"s most famous Stone Age monuments, including Stonehenge, are aligned with the point that the sun rises or sets on the winter solstice. Traditionally, it was a time for feasting and lighting of fires to symbolise the darkest day of the year. Ancient Germanic tribes celebrated the winter solstice by bringing evergreens into their homes as a symbol of the returning light and the coming spring.
Happy winter solstice!
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
-
International Tea Day
-
The ‘potato chip bird’
-
Ive got a lot of problems with you penguins!
-
Love is in the snow
-
Nothing says ‘San Francisco’ quite like...
-
Skyscrapers in Manhattan
-
A road not for the faint of heart
-
Virgin Islands National Park, Saint John, United States
-
World Rivers Day
-
World Rainforest Day
-
Turquoise waters of the Bahamas
-
Independence Day of the Argentine Republic
-
Gandhi Jayanti
-
The sea that acts like a lake
-
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
-
World Penguin Day
-
Val Gardena, South Tyrol, Dolomites, Italy
-
Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska
-
Pearl among the emeralds
-
Scenic Mount Michener
-
International Literacy Day
-
Tree frog, Costa Rica
-
Nazca boobies, Wolf Island, Galápagos Islands, Ecuador
-
Huntington Beach Pier, California, USA
-
Reticulated giraffe mother greeting calf in Kenya
-
Finding beauty in ruins
-
Makar Sankranti
-
Misool, Raja Ampat Islands, Indonesia
-
Nap your worries away
-
Whats so funny?