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A solstice occurs twice a year, whenever Earth's Axis tilts the most toward or away from the Sun , causing the Sun to be farthest north or south at noon. The name is derived from Latin ''sol'' (sun) and ''sistere'' (to stand still), because at the solstice, the Sun stands still in Declination , that is, its movement north or south is minimal. The term ''solstice'' can also be used in a wider sense as the date (day) that such a passage happens. The solstices, together with the Equinox es, are related to the seasons. In some languages they are considered to start or separate the seasons; in others they are considered to be center points (in English, in the Northern hemisphere, for example, the period around the June solstice is known as Midsummer , and Midsummer's Day is 24 June , three or four days after the solstice itself).


NAMES


The two solstices can be distinguished by different pairs of names, depending on which feature one wants to stress.
  • Summer solstice and ''' Winter solstice''' are the most common names. However, these can be ambiguous since seasons of the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere are opposites, and the summer solstice of one hemisphere is the winter solstice of the other.

  • Northern solstice and '''southern solstice''' indicate the direction of the sun's movement. The northern solstice is in June on Earth , when the sun is directly over the Tropic Of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere , and the southern solstice is in December , when the sun is directly over the Tropic Of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere . Some consider these terms to be the most neutral and unambiguous.

  • June solstice and ''' December solstice''' are an alternative to the more common "summer" and "winter" terms, but without the ambiguity for which hemisphere they are intended. They are still not universal, however, as not all people on Earth use a solar-based calendar where the solstices occur every year in the same month (as they do not in the Hebrew Calendar , for example), and the names are also not useful for other planets ( Mars , for example), even though these planets do have seasons.

  • First point of Cancer and '''first point of Capricorn '''. One disadvantage of these names is that, due to the Precession Of The Equinoxes , the Astrological Signs where these solstices are located no longer correspond with the actual Constellation s.

  • Taurus solstice and ''' Sagittarius solstice''' are names that indicate in which constellations the two equinoxes are currently located. These terms are not widely used, though, and until December 1989 the first solstice was in Gemini , according to official IAU boundaries.



Solar solstice terms in East Asia

See Also: Xiazhi
Dongzhi


The traditional East Asian calendars divide a year into 24 Solar Term s (節氣). Xiàzhì ( Pīnyīn ) or '''Geshi''' ( Rōmaji ) () is the 10th solar term. It begins when the Sun reaches the Celestial Longitude of 90° and ends when the Sun reaches the longitude of 105°. Xiàzhì more often refers in particular to the day when the Sun is exactly at the celestial longitude of 90°. In the Gregorian Calendar , Xiàzhì usually begins around June 21 and ends around July 7 .

Dōngzhì ( means extreme, so the terms for the summer and winter solstice directly signify the summits of summer and winter, a linkage absent in Western languages.


HELIOCENTRIC VIEW OF THE SEASONS