Inspiration: Sun Star

 The Winter Solstice is a hugely important date.  While these days Christmas may seem more important in the western world, the solstice is the event that Christmas and many other religious festivals at this time of year would have originally been connected to.  Our ancestors didn't measure time in the ways that we do.  We know what time the sun rose, even on a cloudy day but for them, time measurement was entirely based on observation.

Winter would have been a hard time in many places.  I imagine they would have been concerned if they had enough fuel and food to last till spring.  Even with calendars and an understanding of what is going on, winter can seem endless.  I imagine that for our ancestors, observing the sun diminishing as days grew shorter and the sun stayed lower and lower in the sky would have been daunting.  Knowing that they had reached that point when days started to grow longer again would have been a cause for celebration, like a promise that summer would return.  It's not surprising so many cultures have mid winter celebrations.  They knew just how important the sun was.

Contrary to what some people think, our planet orbits our sun, not the other way around.  The sun is the most important object in our solar system.  The heart around which we all orbit, clustered around for heat and light.  Life depends on this light and heat and the distance from the sun of our planet is key to the presence of life here.  Every star in our night sky is a sun though, but so far away, they don't light up our sky with more than a pinprick of light.  Their light is so dim that during the day we cannot see them.  

This is why I made two versions of the Sun Star design.  One cool and white against a black background and another warm and yellow like our sun but on a white background (although maybe it should have been blue).  The science nerd in me wanted to go further and have red giants and white dwarf stars.  Maybe one day....

So winter is the season when the Northern hemisphere is pointed away from the sun, so that it gets the least amount of sun.  The solstice is the point at which  the northern hemisphere is angled furthest from the sun.  Change though is fastest at the equinoxes...  At the equinoxes sunset and sunrise change by about 3 minutes each day but around the Solstice, the sun rises at the same time for a week (although the sunrise continues to change by about a minute).  

Another affect is that it takes time for the earth to heat up and cool down.  This means that most of the winter actually occurs after the winter solstice.  December is often cold, but January and February are colder.  I have friends in Canada and I find their weather fascinating.....  They have snow for so long!  There, winter is a lot longer.  In the UK, the sea keeps us warm.  Maybe the winter solstice is in the middle of winter in other places, without the warmth of the sea?

My pinterest board is here.