Even our ancestors, who were far from science, knew about two solstices and two equinoxes. But what is the essence of these “transitional” stages in the annual cycle, it became clear only with the development of astronomy. Then we will consider in more detail what these two concepts mean.
Solstice what is it?
From a household point of view, winter solstice denotes the most short winter day of the year. After that, the matter goes closer to spring and the amount of bright time of day is gradually increasing. As for the summer solstice, here everything, on the contrary, is the longest day at this time, after which the number of bright time of day is already reduced. And what happens in the solar system at this time?
Here the whole point lies in the fact that the axis of our planet is under a small slope. Because of this, the ecliptic and equator of the heavenly sphere, which is quite logical, will not match. That is why, there is a change of season with such deviations the day is longer, and the day is very short. In other words, if we consider this process from the point of view of astronomy, then the Solstice Day is the moments of the greatest and smallest, respectively, deviations of the axis of our planet from the Sun.
Equinox
In this case, everything is extremely clear already from the name of the very natural phenomenon the day is almost equal to the night. On such days, the sun passes through sections of the intersection of the equator and ecliptic.
The spring equinox, as a rule, falls on March 20 and 21, but the winter can rather be called autumn, since the natural phenomenon falls on September 22 and 23.
How does it affect people’s lives?
Even our ancestors, who were not particularly competent in matters of astronomy, knew that these days there was something special. It should be noted that it is precisely these periods that some pagan holidays occur, and the agricultural calendar was built on the basis of these natural processes.
As for the holidays, we still celebrate some of them:
And even in our information and technologically advanced 21st century, we celebrate these days, thereby not forgetting the traditions.
