the.com/midwinter
The year's longest dark, when the sun fakes its own death and we throw a party anyway.
means The middle of winter, especially the period around the winter solstice and the shortest days of the year.
from A plain old Germanic compound, exactly what it looks like: Old English 'midwinter,' simply 'mid' (middle) plus 'winter.' It's been used since at least the early medieval period, often pinned to the solstice or to Christmas, and you'll find its siblings across the Germanic family — Old Norse 'midhvetr' among them — because naming the dead-center of the cold season was useful to everyone living through it.
- solstice
- Sun appears to stand still for a few days
- older than christmas
- Pagans feasted here millennia before nativities
- newgrange
- 5,000-year-old tomb engineered to catch solstice dawn
- earth's tilt
- Cold comes from angle, not distance from sun
- perihelion
- Earth is actually closest to sun in January
winter solstice — occurs on december 21 or 22 in northern hemisphere, shortest day of year
yule festival — ancient germanic midwinter celebration still observed in scandinavia and pagan traditions
dongzhi festival — chinese midwinter celebration on december 21-22 with family gatherings and tangyuan dumplings