Google Doodle: On December 21, in order to celebrate the prevalence of the winter season when in the northern hemisphere, the sun will be at the southernmost point of the sky and the amount of day time will be the shortest, Google doodle has created an illustration to celebrate the longest nights of the year in the top half part of the Earth.
About the Google Doodle day:
Today the path of the sun seems to be at a great distance, north or south, depending on which half of the planet you’re on. Solstices come twice a year. For the northern hemisphere, the summer, June solstice occurs around June 20-21, and the winter (December) solstice happens around December 21-22.
During the solstices, earth reaches a point where its tilt is at the greatest angle to the plane of its orbit, causing one hemisphere to receive more daylight than the other.
Relation between solstices and Christmas:
The winter solstice is known as “Yalda Night” in the Iranian/ Persian culture. It is the time when families come together to eat, drink and recite poetry. ‘Yalda’ means birth, which comes from early Christians living in Persia, who celebrated the birth of Jesus around this time. Although many Orthodox and Coptic churches believe that according to the Julian calendar Christmas is on January 7 (which is December 25 in the Gregorian calendar), as the birth of Jesus meant ‘light of the world’, Christians thought this was the right time to celebrate the birth of Jesus. They also gave some customs from the Winter Solstice Christian meanings, like Holly, Mistletoe and even Christmas Carols!
