The shortest day

Today is the shortest day of the year for the Southern Hemisphere. In New Zealand, we have nearly 9 hours of daylight today – to be exact, 8 hours, 56 minutes and 24 seconds at latitude 43 degrees south. Tomorrow will be 3 seconds longer. Last night was the longest night: 15 hours, 3 minutes and 36 seconds. The winter solstice was at 5.16am. This is the time the sun seems to be at its most southern point from the Earth.

In the Antarctic Circle, the sun just hits the horizon at midday and then disappears. The rest of the time it is dark.

Although this is the time of the winter solstice, winter has been late coming this year. In most parts of New Zealand, the weather in May and early June was mild. Skiers are waiting for snow on the mountains. July is usually our coldest month.

This is a time of celebration for Maori. They celebrate their New Year or Matariki from June 4th until July 4th. Matariki is the Māori name for the Pleiades, a star cluster in the constellation Taurus. You can see this group of stars about half an hour before sunrise, from early June. Many cities have Matariki festival events such as concerts, poetry, art exhibitions, story telling and kite flying.
Listen to Winter Solstice 2009 to hear more about the shortest day and Matariki.

Vocabulary

cluster – a group together
constellation – a group of stars which form a pattern. Taurus forms a bull’s head.
solstice – this comes from the Latin “sol” which means “sun” and “sistere” which means “to stand still”.

Questions

1. Does your country celebrate the winter or summer solstice?
2. Do you find the long winter nights depressing?
3. What do you think it is like in the Antarctic when it is dark for 24 hours at this time of year? How do they manage to feel cheerful?