What do we know about the summer solstice? It has long been particularly distinguished by almost all the peoples of the world, acting as a source of various beliefs. After all, the movement of the sun in the sky played a leading role in the planning of agricultural work. From year to year, the culmination of the behavior of the luminary was observed and the longest day of the year came. This phenomenon has been attributed a positive meaning in many cultures.
From the standpoint of science, this astronomical event is not particularly noticeable. It’s just that from this time on, the daylight hours begin to decrease, and the night becomes longer. For the northern hemisphere of our planet, the longest daylight hours of a year always fall on the 20th or 21st of June. On this day, the night is the shortest of the year.
The Earth, moving along the trajectory of a closed elliptical orbit around the center of the system - the Sun, twice in a light year reaches the points of greatest distance from it. The solstice itself lasts only a moment. But the whole longest day of the year has been called this term. The second - the winter solstice - marks the offensive in the northern latitudes of the longest night and shortest day of the year. It always falls at the end of December - the 21st or 22nd. And for the southern hemisphere the situation is the opposite. On the same days of June, the winter solstice is observed there, and in December - the summer solstice.
Being at the mid-latitudes of the northern hemisphere of the planet, you can see that from the moment of the winter solstice the Sun is every day higher and higher above the horizon. The luminary reaches its highest point towards the summer solstice, and then daily rises ever less high. Those. the degree of the Earth's inclination to the Sun is maximum in June and minimum in December (for Moscow it is over 57 ° and about 11 °, respectively).
Ask how long is the longest day of the year? It will directly depend on the geographical coordinates of the observation site. Accordingly, from the angle of the Sun rising above the horizon. For Moscow latitudes, the duration of this day is 17 hours and 34 minutes. It starts to get light already at 4-44 in the morning, and the sunset takes place at 22-18 in the evening. For Krasnodar, the longest daylight hours of the year are almost 16 hours (without 20 minutes), for St. Petersburg, almost 19 hours (without 10 minutes).
In the northern latitudes these days the Sun does not set at all, bringing the polar day (66.4 ° and further to the north).
The traditions of celebrating the solstice were developed among many peoples. The ancient Slavs revered it. Every year, on the longest day of the year, the Kupala festival took place, meaning the end of spring and the arrival of summer. Then came the celebration of the solstice, when the three longest days of the year were observed. All the festivities were dedicated to the most respected god in Russia - Perun. Two other astronomical milestones of the year were especially highlighted - the days of the autumn and spring equinoxes, when the length of the day is equal to the length of the night.
Since school times, I have not consolidated the most pleasant association associated with the astronomical date of the solstice. It was firmly cut into memory: in 1941, on June 22, fascist Germany suddenly attacked the USSR. The attack was preceded by the longest day of the year, and then came the solstice.
True, according to the assumptions of some esotericists, it was precisely the unsuccessful choice of the date of the attack that led Hitler to such a collapse. The attack on the Union, on Russia, in the days dedicated to the heavenly protector of the Slavs - the god Perun, was his very first mistake. The Russian people with the help of the divine thunderer turned out to be simply invincible.
I don’t know if the mystics are right. But, probably, all the peoples of the world could not be mistaken, and yet there is something sacred in the longest day of the year.
