Why the heck do we celebrate winter solstice anyway?

Call me an idiot, but I've only just figured out what's so special about this time of the year.
People typically think of Winter as that time of the year when it's really cold.
But it's not. Winter is when things start getting warmer.
December 22 (or thereabouts) is the shortest day of the year, as well as the longest night. All other things being equal, it is supposed to be the coldest day of the year, because the earth is maximally tilted away from the sun. Throughout January, the day lengthens by 1-1.5 hours.
So people have historically celebrated this time of the year and called it Christmas, Hannukah, Saturnalia, or whatever, because it's the time of the year when things start getting better.
You have to realize that this ancient custom started so long ago, that people still struggled for survival all over the world. They didn't have food during winter. They had to rely on whatever they could store, and they didn't have freezers either so it was a very difficult time. Knowing that they had endured the worst of the cold season was definitely cause for much rejoicing.

Not exactly. Celebration of each season's solstice is far more ancient than these religions. It was these holidays that were tailored to be around these times to convert "pagans".

Okay, you're an idiot, Eggy.

Why celebrate the solstice? Why not? If I'm guessing right, Darko has a private ritual to celebrate the beginning of every day That's not a bad way to approach life. For what it's worth, hummingbirds have a "Welcome The Dawn" ritual too (well, theirs is eat-a-bunch-real-fast-or-die) but it is still a nice concept.

Bear in mind that the length of the day and the temperature are out of phase by perhaps PI / 3 radians.

Azelda

Why, because it's Solstastic, of course.

You're an idiot.

It's interesting to note that what you've just replied was precisely in the sentence that followed what you quoted... did you just stop reading halfway through?

Care to expound? I'm not a physicist.

its another reason to get drunk and party.

Hey Siggy,
We'll the solstices as well as the equinoxes have been observed by ancient cultures and thier understanding of these and such other astronomical happenings seems to far have far exceeded our current knowledge, putting everything into perspective of course.

The ancient Egyptians seem to have had such advanced knowledge. I would also say the Babolonians and the Mesopotamians as well, but the Egyptians seem to have had the ability to incorporate such data into thier architecture.

The Great Pyramid contains numerical knowledge of pi, well before the Greeks, as well as thier knowledge of such things as the mass and circumference of the Earth, the distance between the Earth and the Sun, even Euclid's 47th propostion -aka- Pythagorean Theorem which actually was already known to the Old Babylonians, and the pyramids on the Giza plateau are laid out latitudily and longitudily to mirror exactly Orion's Belt (The Osiris to the Egyptians).

One problem that remains a heated debate amungst Egyptologists and Archeoastronomers is the actual time that the Sphinx and pyramids were built. The layout on the plateau of pyramids and the direction of the Great Sphinx points to 10,500 BC!!!
To ancient Egyptians this time known as "Zep Tepi" is the first time. Robert Buval and Graham Hancock discovered, in the 80's sometime, that this Zep Tepi, based on 10,500 BC is also the beginning of the precessional cycle. Precessional cycle is the Earths wobble on it's axis as it rotates, similar to watching a toy top wobble back and forth as it spins. Now this cycle takes 72 years to complete one degree, that's 25,920 years for one complete precessional rotation!!!

This knowledge is also incorporated into Mayan civilization, Anchor Wat Cambodia and other ancient sites around the world.

So why celebrate it you ask? Don't know but someone way back in the day thought it was kinda important Plus thier lack of meteorilogical knowledge probably lead them to interesting rituals to appease the Gods and show hommage in return for prosperity in the coming year. They knew when things started anew, and worship the coming of the Solstices and Equinoxes.

Hope that's a little helpful and not too much mumblejumbleblablabla

FYI, Bauval and crew are quack pseudo-scientists whose data and arguments have largely been trashed by the mainstream academics. Bibliography available on request but you can read
about his collaborator as a jumping off point.

That doesn't mean the Eqyptians were bad builders or dumb, just that the Bauval/Hancock crew are wrong.

Shortest day is in December; coldest month is February.
Longest day is in June; hottest month is August.

There is a delay/hysteresis of roughly 2 months between the maximum/minima of each cycle. Basically, the hemisphere continues to warm up even as the day starts getting shorter, and vise versa.

The complete cycle of a cosine/sine wave is 2 pi radians, which corresponds here to a year, so the phase difference is:

2 months / 12 months * 2 pi radians = pi / 3 radians

Azelda

You did read the heated dabate part, right? But definately good info nonetheless I'm aware of Hancocks theories and what not about earlier civilizations but not 100% in agreement myself, I just remain interested in the Pyramid, Sphinx thing. Sure I understand we can all play with some numbers and come up with some intreguing hypothosies, just a lot of info there and not quite willing to chalk it ALL up to coincidence.
Also the age of the Sphinx itself is highly debated by among others Robert Schoch sp and John Anthony West. I'm not sure I could properly defend thier theories on civilizations origin since I admittedly don't read on it much. Quacks? Maybe, don't know and I wouldn't go that far, for that matter one could in turn call Zahi Hawass an absolute idiot but I wouldn't go that far either.

Good point there Malachi, I was not trying to incite controversy here, simply give Siggy a little insight into how far back the Solstices have been of importance to human culture. That's all. But hey, anytime you've got some good info or even theories, I'd love to hear em, in another thread preferably, we'll give Siggy his respect in his own thread, I'm always looking for more knowledge, for OR against.

Jonny, just a heads up. It is EGGY that made this thread, not SIGGY.