The Solstices:
The Yin and Yang of the Year
Brick Brewer
July 1999
The Solstices are the primary features of the year, the twin pivots about which the year rotates. Humans have understood the simplicity of these changes since the dawn of history.

The Solstices are viewed as the main delineators of calendrical time and weather conditions because they herald the change in the amount of sunlight hitting the Earth. The Solstices denote when the Earth heats up (after the Winter Solstice) and cools down (following the Summer Solstice).

The word "Solstice" means "Sun stands still". It signifys stillness in anticipation of change.

In the period before a Solstice the light either increases (in summer) or decreases (in winter), and with the occurrence of the Solstice those conditions reverse. In the summer the revision is to the shortening of the days, in the winter the period of darkness changes into an increase of light (a lengthening of days). And, as a practical matter, as the light increases or decreases so does the heat also increase or decrease.

Each year there is one six month period when the light increases (a cumulative increase of Yang energy culminating in the Summer Solstice) and another six month period when the amount of light decreases (a cumulative increase of Yin energy culminating in the Winter Solstice).

The Solstices are primarily about changes in the amount of light impacting the earth. They also have a major effect with regard to the temperature of the earth. It is easy to confuse light with heat. However, they are very different.

The Sun contributes the light which is then converted into heat on contact with the earth. Although it takes time for light to be changed into a substantial amount of heat, the Solstices provide the start date for the major changes in heat and cold because they act as a signal that the light is returning. The Summer Solstice is the signal that the light is decreasing, that it will become more temperate and less hot.

Thus, at a Solstice there is change both in fact (a reversal in the amount of light arriving on the earth) and in principle (a "notification" that a difference in the amount of heat is forthcoming).

Historically the ancients paid homage to both Solstices. In Northern Europe (which is the Northern region of the inhabited part of the Northern Hemisphere) the indigenous peoples have celebrated the Winter Solstice essentially since time began.

In Egypt (as an example of the Southern part of the Northern Hemisphere) the ancients celebrated the Summer Solstice as it signaled the lessening impact of the Sun. The Summer Solstice communicated that the oppressive days of summer light and heat would soon be over.

We now have forced-air heating and cooling, but we definitely still respond to heat and cold, and to light and darkness. The year is still marked by its extremes and by its change from those extremes. It is more than a feature of the calendar. At one level it can also be felt as a heartbeat of the Earth as it relates to the Cosmos.

The Solstices occur as a phenomenon of the Sun-Earth system and relate primarily to the tilt of the Earth. (With regard to the apparent path of the Sun, the ecliptic, the axis of the Earth is tilted 23.5 º.)

In the winter the Earth tilts away from the Sun. While this condition means it is cold in the winter, two additional circumstances help mitigate this chilling effect. First of all, the Sun is closer to the Earth in the winter, approximately 90 million miles vs. 93 million miles in the summer. And second, because the tilt is so extreme, sunlight comes in at a low angle (vs. the high angle of incidence in the summer). This allows sunlight to enter our homes and thus help warm us. As a way to visualize the relationship of the Sun and Earth in winter, at noon on the Winter Solstice the Sun is approximately over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in the Southern Hemisphere. Here it traverses the Tropic of Capricorn at 23.5 º South, the furthest South the Sun goes.

At the Summer Solstice the Earth assumes its most direct tilt into the Sun. For our purposes here, however, we are not as interested in why the summer is hot as we are interested in the fact that humans have recognized the culmination of heat and light as a hinge of the year. The Summer Solstice is the marker of that concentration. At the Summer Solstice the Sun at noon is in the Northern Hemisphere very nearly over Cuba orbiting the Tropic of Cancer (again at 23.5 º, but this time 23.5 º North).

The path of the year leading up to each Solstice is six months long. The Solstices demonstrate the extremes of heat and cold. The midpoints between the Solstices are referred to as Equinoxes which exhibit the balance of heat and cold. Thus the progress of the Solstices "creates" the Equinoxes, or that time when the night is as long as the day (hence, "Equi-nox"). At the Equinoxes at noon the Sun is directly over the Equator.

So even with this abbreviated look at the major factors comprising the year we can get an idea of how the Solstices result in the Equinoxes, and how the Solstices and the Equinoxes work together to result in the Seasons.

Seasonal aspects of both the Western and Chinese calendars have their base in the Solstices. However, there are several observations of phenomena which must be recognized here.

In China the seasons occur 6 weeks earlier than they do in the West. In the Western system it is still the Solstices and Equinoxes which signal the seasons. However, in China the recognition of the seasons begins at the midpoint between the Solstices and Equinoxes instead of at the dates of the Solstices and Equinoxes themselves.

In the Chinese calendar the Solstices may be regarded as the points of commencement from which the 24 Jie Qi of the Chinese calendar then take form.

Note also that although the seasonal aspects of the Western Calendar have a basis determined by the Solstices and Equinoxes, no month of the Western calendar begins on a Solstice or Equinox.

The Solstices are interesting in part because they are primary examples of that which is both principle and manifestation, thus they are functional symbols.

(Authors Note: This look at the Solstices has concentrated on the Northern Hemisphere. In the Southern Hemisphere the Solstice date is still the Solstice, but its season is reversed, winter to summer. Thus, when it is the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the Winter Solstice in the Southern Hemisphere. Likewise, the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes occur on the same dates hemisphere to hemisphere, but they are also reversed.)

Brick Brewer, © 1999, All Rights Reserved