Winter solstice 2020: sunset times city by city. Meaning and traditions

Here is again winter solstice. The appointment is set for this year Monday 21 December, a date that will officially mark the start of the astronomical winter season in our hemisphere (ie the northern one). The event will take place 10:02 Italian time in point and will be associated as a rule with shortest day of the year, contrary to what the popular saying about Santa Lucia.

What is the winter solstice

Astronomically, the winter solstice is the time when the Sun reaches the point of
minimum declination in its apparent motion along the ecliptic, that is the path that our mother star seems to travel annually with respect to the background of the celestial sphere. On a practical level, our perception of the December solstice is related to the fact that we have a day with
very few hours of light; the opposite of what happens
during the summer solstice, when the declination reaches its maximum and in the Northern hemisphere we have the longest day of the year. After the watershed of 21 December, the cold season will take over autumn, with a pleasant downside: the gradual
increased hours of light. In short, the days will return to lengthen, albeit in such a slow way that it cannot be appreciated immediately.

The shortest day in Italian cities

As mentioned, the solstice (from the Latin solstitium, union of ‘sol’, ‘Sun’ and ‘sistere’, ‘stop’) defines a
precise moment of the day. On 21 December 2020, the appointment will start at 10:02 in the morning, Italian solar time. Regarding the hours of light, a
Roma the shortest day of the year will last for example 9 hours and 7 minutes, with the sun rising at 7:34 am and setting at 4:42 pm. TO
Milano natural lighting will be present for 8 hours and 42 minutes, a
Florence for 8 hours and 53 minutes, a
Naples for 9 hours and 14 minutes.

Traditions: the winter solstice from antiquity to today

In
pre-christian age the movement of the stars was attributed to the will of the gods: the winter solstice therefore represented an event full of
spiritual meanings, which sanctioned the victory of light over darkness, as well as of life over death. For this reason, the Germanic, Celtic and more generally Northern European populations paid homage to the progressive exit from darkness with the
Yule party, which included a period of rest accompanied by dances and banquets. The tradition continued in Iceland throughout the Middle Ages, up to the time of the Protestant reform. Even now Yule is a fixture in
neopaganesimo, which on December 21 celebrates one of the eight
Sabbath, the feasts linked to the movement of the Sun. In the late Roman Empire, the
Sun Invicus cult (‘Sole invitto’), which was synonymous with rebirth, and which according to some reconstructions would constitute the
pagan origin of Christmas.

Staying on the subject it is impossible not to mention
Stonehenge, the Neolithic site located in Wiltshire, England, whose large stones (so-called megaliths) are arranged to have a perfect view of the sunset during the solstices. Every December Stonehenge is
pilgrimage destination for tourists, followers of the
druidism and other spiritual movements, which are rejoicing to greet the repetition of the astronomical phenomenon. This year, due to the
Covid-19, the entrance to the site is however regulated by
safety rules stringent (among other things it is necessary to book), which also provide for the impossibility of accessing some areas.