What do we know about the summer solstice? It has long been especially distinguished by almost all the peoples of the world, acting as a source of various beliefs. After all, the movement of the sun across the sky played a leading role in the planning of agricultural work. From year to year, the culmination of the behavior of the star was observed and the longest day of the year came. This phenomenon was attributed a positive meaning in many cultures.
From the standpoint of science, this astronomical event is not particularly remarkable. Just from now on, the duration of daylight begins to decrease, and the night becomes longer. For the northern hemisphere of our planet, the longest day of the year always falls on the 20th or 21st of June. This night is the shortest night 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 it is customary to call the entire longest day of the year by this term. The second is the winter solstice -marks the onset in the northern latitudes of the longest night and shortest day of the year. It always falls at the end of December - on the 21st or 22nd. But for the southern hemisphere, the situation is reversed. On the same days of June, the winter solstice is observed there, and in December, the summer solstice.
Being at the middle latitudes of the northern hemisphere of the planet, you can notice that since the winter solstice the Sun is getting higher above the horizon every day. The luminary reaches its highest point by the summer solstice, and then rises less and less high every day. Those. the degree of inclination of the Earth 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, and from the angle of the Sun's elevation above the horizon. For Moscow latitudes, the duration of this day is 17 hours and 34 minutes. Dawn begins already at 4-44 in the morning, and sunset occurs at 22-18 in the evening. For Krasnodar, the length of the longest day of the year is almost 16 hours (20 minutes less), for St. Petersburg - almost 19 hours (10 minutes less).
In the northern latitudes these days the Sun does not set at all, bringing the polar day (66, 4° and further north).
Traditions for celebrating the day of the solstice were developed by many peoples. The ancient Slavs also revered him. Every year, the longest day of the year isKupala holiday, which means the end of spring and the arrival of summer. Then came the celebration of the solstice, when the three longest days of the year are observed. All the festivities were dedicated to the most respected god in Russia - Perun. Two more astronomical milestones in the year were also highlighted - the days of the autumn and spring equinoxes, when the length of the day is equal to the length of the night.
From my school days, not the most pleasant association associated with the astronomical date of the solstice has been entrenched in me. It stuck firmly in my 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 the unfortunate 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.
