Winter solstice sunrise at Llangrun (photo from Wikimedia Commons)

21 December 2025

Today the sun will pause its southward journey across the sky and begin to move north again. That moment of pause at the winter solstice occurs at 10:03am Eastern Standard Time.

You can see the sun’s journey if you record its position at the same standard time every day for a year. Its path, an analemma, is created by the Earth’s tilted orbit, not by movement of the Sun. This silent movie shows the path for three years.

Musical interlude to celebrate the season: Winter Solstice, composed by Michele McLaughlin and released in 2006, was often heard then as background music in shops during the Christmas season.