Winter Solstice

Days grow longer with the return of light

There are lots of reasons to celebrate at this time of year and the one that has importance and meaning to me is the winter solstice because it’s based on a real and wonderful thing: the precise moment earth’s orbit of the sun reaches the position when days stop shrinking in the northern hemisphere, to grow longer again.

We all live our lives around this astronomical clock, as the earth travels around the sun giving us seasons, which in the UK, are markedly different. As a grower, that extra light kickstarts a chain of events in nature that dictate my entire year. Understanding how the seasons impact plants and why is core to the wild way of gardening.

Seasons and the changes in day length happen because the earth orbits at a fixed tilt of 23.4 degrees that always faces in the same direction. In winter, the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the sun causing days to be shorter and the sun to appear lower, while the southern hemisphere is tilted toward it with longer days.

From this point on, as we orbit to the other side of the sun, the top half of the planet is exposed to more light. Leading to the sun appearing higher in the sky, making days longer.

The word solstice is not pagan, it is the scientific noun of the exact moment the earth’s tilt is most angled away from the sun. It happens twice a year at opposing sides of the orbit. Living in the northern hemisphere, when the top is tilted away, it makes shorter days and winter solstice. When the top of earth is tilted toward the sun, days are longest and we have summer solstice. The southern hemisphere experiences the exact opposite seasons.

You can count down to the precise solstice moment, which changes slightly each year (9.20am this year around Hebden Bridge), but I keep it simple and think of the solstice as the whole day in which it happens. The day with the fewest hours of sunlight, just 7 hrs 25 minutes and 22 seconds where we live around Hebden Bridge (according to Time and Date). By summer solstice, daylight hours are more than double.

All of this occurs because of the laws of physics that form the universe, especially gravity, created by the immense mass of planets and stars, tying us all together in space.

The word solstice can conjure images of people in robes dancing around Stone Henge. That’s not for me personally - though I love that other people have their own celebrations - this is not religion or worship I’m talking about, it is science and the simple amazement of our natural universe. Astronomical science is also not to be confused with astrology and star signs, though they’re obviously interlinked.

Winter solstice is an incredible and exciting turning point in the natural year. Days get longer and the growing cycle continues, snowdrops are round the corner, what’s not to love.

I like to mark or celebrate these moments in some small way because it’s fun but it’s also helpful for me as a grower to have an awareness of when these four seasonal markers are. For instance, most seed sowing begins for me around the spring equinox when daylight equals night. I tend to go for a walk to see the sunrise or sunset, reflect on the year gone and the next ahead, set resolutions or raise a glass to another year lived.

Because our orbit is a never ending cycle, you can choose when your new year is. Many gardeners consider the autumn equinox their new year because that’s when plants start forming buds or we start planting stuff for the following season. I was drawn to that idea too, but settled back on the winter solstice, because for me it’s about the return of the light, plus dark evenings are when I plan. Though I suppose, every day is the start of a new year.

I enjoy the idea of resolutions, or perhaps we should think of them as goals or hopes for the year ahead. I think I’m realistic in what I can achieve, and I tend to plan one or two things that I actually want to do, which helps. If you don’t like yearly goals, make yours not to have any. My main project for 2025, which I’m starting today, is to paint and draw 1,000 Landscapes shared on my site to help accelerate my art skills next year.

Happy new year, today, not for a week and a half’s time, when it’s too late. I wish you the happiest, healthiest and nature filled 2025.

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