December 21st - was the December solistice and the first day of winter - planning your seasonal trips and outings

 

December 21st was the first day of winter and the solstice. What does that mean?

For travellers, it means that in the UK the 21st is the shortest day. That is good news. From now onwards, every day there is a little more light. 

Is there anything good for travellers about short days? Early dusk means more of the darker evenings on which to enjoy the Xmas lights in the streets, the lights up the lamp posts in high streets (Americans say main street), and the Christmas trees. Now is a good time to dash and take photos of the local lights. 

How long will the lights be up?

I looked it up in Wikipedia. Which was very illuminating. 

UT date and time of
equinoxes and solstices on Earth^[1][2]

event	equinox		solstice		equinox		solstice
month	March[3]		June[4]		September[5]		December[6]
year	day	time	day	time	day	time	day	time
2017	20	10:29	21	04:25	22	20:02	21	16:29
2018	20	16:15	21	10:07	23	01:54	21	22:22
2019	20	21:58	21	15:54	23	07:50	22	04:19
2020	20	03:50	20	21:43	22	13:31	21	10:03
2021	20	09:37	21	03:32	22	19:21	21	15:59
2022	20	15:33	21	09:14	23	01:04	21	21:48
2023	20	21:25	21	14:58	23	06:50	22	03:28
2024	20	03:07	20	20:51	22	12:44	21	09:20
2025	20	09:02	21	02:42	22	18:20	21	15:03

The day is the same every year. But the time of sunrise and sunset varies. The length of time between dawn and dusk stays the same, but the times of dawn and dusk vary. (Well I never. Who knew? Maybe you. Not me. Well, we all know now.

Why would the dawn times affect travellers? If would affect you if you wanted to see dawn at Stonehenge or any landmark which is supposed to have been constructed to look special on the day of the Solstice.

This chart seems odd to me.

Dusk on Dec 22 in London is just before 4 pm. That was an awkward time for lighting Hanukah lights for a dinner event starting at 6.30 pm. Fortunately the hosts were not so religious that they insisted on lighting the candles at dusk.

Earlier in the week for day three of Hanukkah, we had three hanukiahs, one lit by the lady from each of three couples. 

Current Time:	22 Dec 2022, 12:10:52
Next Equinox:	20 Mar 2023 21:24 (Vernal)
Sunrise Today:	08:04↑ 128° Southeast
Sunset Today:	15:53↑ 232° Southwes

Sunrise at Stonehenge. Photo by Mark Grant in Wikipedia.

Centuries ago, in fact, as recently as our great grandparents time, (I am writing in 2022) there was no TV. Street lighting came in in the 1800s, house lights, later. So the time of dawn and dusk affected your travel. 

Scottish Winter Food

Dawn and dusk also affected meal times. Up north in England they had high tea, a combination of tea and supper, with a savoury course or grill followed by filling sweet cakes or buns.  Christmas pudding and Christmas cake contained dried fruit and often alcohol as a preservative, with hot custard. Almonds might be added, arranged in a circular, concentric, pattern on top as in Dundee cake.

Stonehenge Summer solstice from Wikipedia on Solstice

The Soltice - meaning

The word solstice is derived from the Latin sol ("sun") and sistere ("to stand still").

Why? Because at the solstices, the Sun's declination appears to "stand still"; that is, the seasonal movement of the Sun's daily path (as seen from Earth) pauses at a northern or southern limit before reversing direction.

When I am planning a trip, I check on the temperature of the destination in the month I will be travelling. You also want to check the season and school holidays.

Australians visit the UK for Christmas, which is their long, summer holiday. We used to go skiing in New Zealand 

Museums

Many museum opening days vary with the seasons. Some museums close for winter and open in spring. Others have last admission half an hour before closing time. 

The food served varies. Hotel and restaurant prices may be high for Christmas and New Year, and the whole of December, or including the first week of January. Sign up for your favourite restaurants and hotels. One year in the Lake district we stopped at a famous restaurant, the Miller Howe, and signed up for their newsletter. In the spring we received an offer for three nights for the price of two, or two for the price of one. Whatever it was, it made the difference between never going, and a once in a lifetime experience. 

I visited Harrow School in England in the winter. The school had a guided tour which I read about in the local newspaper. I was surprised that they had a tour in winter. They had the winter tours because Australians came over and joined the tours. I met an Australian teacher who was on her summer break during my winter in the UK.

Useful Websites

For the time of dusk

https://www.timeanddate.com/sun/uk/london?month=12

English tea time: cucumber, white and brown bread, high tea

Sitting down to tea, after reading books about how people live in other times and other countries, you may feel that you are leading a relatively uneventful life. Yet the tea table before you has links to other eras and other countries, or contrasts with what you have experienced previously.

Outside the window of the room where I had tea recently, at a friens new home, I enjoyed seeing every room of the house, especially the kitchen. I looked out at the back garden with the lawn, contrasting with the front driveway of many houses in the street, covered in to allow car parking. I had previously taken a tour of the house, en route to the downstairs cloakroom. Now I looked out of the kitchen window, admiring the long lawn at the back of the house.

In Medieval times you had a meadow with grass and colourful perfumed flowers. Along came lawn tennis. Then lawn mowers. So in Victorian times, in a large house with a grassed lawn, you might watch croquet or clock golf or cricket played on the field or lawn.

Afterwards, in mid-afternoon, as either owner of the property, or a guest you ate cucumber sandwiches on white bread for tea. Tea was a meal between luncheon and dinner.

In the North of England in winter you came home when it got dark and cold. Electric lights in and around the house were installed in various years, as you can check, along with street lighting. Your local library will tell you about street lighting in your nearest city, town or village.

How can you find out? When writing about an ancestor of mine who lived in the East End of London in my novel I struggled to find out. The electric lights in the USA were better documented on the web than the lighting in London.

If you go to the North of England and Scotland you can still get High Tea. This is a half way meal combining tea and a snack supper. You start with savoury and end with sweet, maybe start with hot and end with cold, such as a grill or sandwiches or toast with something on top followed by cold cakes or if you prefer, hot pancakes.

Tea Time
Some schools and old people's homes would and still do serve a High Tea or early supper, at 5.30 or six o'clock. Meals get later as you go further south. In Europe, the latest would be the 9 pm or 10 pm meal in a restaurant in Spain.

It was easier to send the hero of my novel on a trip to another city, where his relatives were excited about the new lighting, than to leave him in London, where he might have been in the dark, at least the novel's author was in the dark.

Lights
Maybe the records of the electric light companies, the sales of light bulbs and records or household expenses will also give you a clue as to whether your ancestors or the people who used to live in your house had candles, gas light, or electric lights in the city or home.

Lighting up times, dawn and dusk, will affect the working day, the building of a house, school finishing time (allowing time for children to walk home, before the universal bus routes). You are cold and tired and hungry, or hot and tired and hungry, when you arrive home after a long walk (even costume drama ladies walking for a chat or riding a horse might be tired.

In Singapore at a Eurasian club we were served hot in both senses, curried food. In India it would be rice in the north. In China you would have rice in the north, noodles in the south. Back to Singapore, majority Chinese, but the Eurasian club was for Indians or rather mostly ex-past British or other white men with their exotically dressed Indian wives, who presumably liked curry (as did nay grandfather in London who died in 1950 - never went to India as far as I know and alas it's now too late to ask my late parents or y grandparents how he acquired this taste. Maybe Queen Victoria had made curry popular in his youth. Does anybody know?

The Eurasian club served me sandwiches using white bread. They serve whatever the organisers ask for, which might be savoury food followed by cold cake or biscuit or the modern substitutes, crisps and nuts and nibbles.

Back in London, I enjoy tea with my book group friends. They are mostly ladies (some of them belong to several book groups, at least two, sometimes three groups). Occasionally this group is joined by a husband, author, or retired gentleman has the time and inclination to read the latest price-winning book and offer a verdict. We have a mix of shop-bought and home catering.

My previous post describes the 'bridge rolls'. The afternoon's hostess told us they were not bridge rolls, but better than bridge rolls, less heavy, less bready, more light and more moist. I took a picture of the wrapper. I thought it was easier to give another family member the wrapper when they went shopping, and easier for them or me to show to a shop assistant. Weeks later the wrapper picture is still on my computer, whereas a name written on a scrap of paper would disappear.

The rolls are called Mini White Submarine Rolls. The white ones look more like the traditional bridge roll. They come in packs of eight which will make 16 half pieces, enough to fill one long oblong plate. We had a mixture of brown and white rolls, which adds visual appeal.

Angela Lansbury, author, researcher, speaker.