Winter Solstice 2014 and #YEGlongnight

Happy winter solstice (and first day of winter)! Last night was the longest night of the year and the fact that from here on out the days will be getting longer is, I think, reason to celebrate.

Edmonton, at latitude 53.5°N, is the northernmost city in North America with a population of over 1 million. Consequently, the extremes in length of day are quite pronounced, with the city experiencing 7 h 27 min and 17 h 4 min of daylight on the winter and summer solstices, respectively. Today the sunrise and sunset are at 8:49 h and 16:15 h in Edmonton. By contrast, Victoria, at 48.4°N latitude, experiences an extra 49 minutes of daylight today, with sunrise and sunset at 8:03 h and 16:18 h.

Honestly, I haven't been too bothered by the short days. I've been travelling to and from work in the dark for several months already, due to pretty early starts and late end times, and when I'm in the hospital the lack of windows has me blissfully unaware of the exterior darkness.

The city of Edmonton does an admirable job of encouraging its residents to embrace the long winter, hosting winter festivals, ice sculpting competitions, and free public outdoor skating. To celebrate the winter solstice, Edmonton Pipelines, a University of Alberta humanities research group working to construct "an interactive digital platform for urban storytelling", has initiated #YEGlongnight. This venture asks Edmontonians to submit social media under the hashtag #YEGlongnight to "shed some light on what it means to live the longest night and the shortest day in one of the most northern cities in the world". Submissions from sunset on December 20 to sunset on December 21 will be collected and analyzed.

What does the solstice mean to me? In my family, Christmas has never carried the anticipation and importance that it does for many people. That is not to say that we never erected our plastic tree or received gifts from Santa -- my parents ensured my sister and I had all of the formative Christmas experiences, complete with stockings, turkey dinners, and mall Santa photos. As we grew out of the Santa delusion we stopped celebrating Christmas and rather decorated with "solstice lights", as my dad coined them, and enjoyed turkey as holiday -- rather than Christmas -- dinner.

last year's holiday dinner

I think the solstice is a wonderful secular reason to celebrate. Though humans have moved away from coordinating daily life with the rising and setting of the sun, the fundamental concept of switching from shortening days to lengthening ones promotes an optimism and joy that spans time, cultures, and beliefs.

brightening up the long nights outside of the University of Alberta Hospital

Do you celebrate the winter solstice?