The annual SOLSTICE message

sunrise over NYC
I seem to post this every year. Here's last year's, with the dates changed for 2006-2007.

Many of you think, as I long did, that the winter solstice -- December 21 --marks the time when sunset begins to come later, and sunrise earlier. Maybe it works that way at the Equator, but not in this neck of the woods, New York City, nor, almost certainly, in yours. Nothing really changes on December 21st.

According to the US Naval Observatory's statistics for New York City, the sun set at 4:29 pm yesterday, December 13th. That is one minute later than it set the day before. From now on the sun begins to set later and later until July 2, 2007.

And yet December 13th is more than a week before the actual solstice which will be at 7:22 p.m on December 21 this year. The difference is at the other end of the day. Though the sunset is getting later, the sun will continue to rise later and later long after the solstice day.

Today, Dec 14, the sun rose at 7:12 a.m. The sunrise will not start getting earlier until... January 10th! On that day the sun will rise at 7:19 a.m, one minute earlier than the day before. After that it will rise earlier and earlier and the mornings will get lighter and lighter. January 10th is the turn-around day for sunrise. It will rise earlier and earlier until June 21, 2007.

So I am proposing two new holidays to take the place of the old pagan celebrations of the solstice. Let's give a cheer for December 13th and January 10th--the glorious Turn-around Days for 2006-2007. They hold out the promise that the Early Birders, the Wednesday morning birdwatching group whose meeting time is 7:00 a.m., won't have to convene in the dark for much longer, and that soon those hoping to see Pale Male and Lola settle in at their night roost trees will be able to come at the end of their work day, not in mid-afternoon..