Winter Solstice
December 21 · Level 9 · #377 of 2238
In the northern hemisphere this is the shortest day and the longest night of the year, after which daylight starts to grow again. People have treated it as a turning point of the year since ancient times.
How it is celebrated: people light candles and bonfires, gather for festive meals, hold festivals of light and watch the sunrise. In China the Dongzhi festival calls for dumplings and sweet tangyuan rice balls, while in Iran the night before the solstice is Yalda, spent with pomegranates and poems by Hafez.
At Newgrange in Ireland, built about five thousand years ago, the rising sun around the solstice shines down a long passage and lights the inner chamber for several minutes.