Summer Solstice: 21st June
21st June is the day of the Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere.
- The day is observed as the International Day of Yoga.
- Solstice is a Latin word that means ‘stalled sun’.
- It is a natural phenomenon that occurs twice every year, once in the summer and again during winter, in each hemisphere of the earth – Summer and Winter Solstice.
- It is the longest day and shortest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
- During this, countries in the Northern Hemisphere are nearest to the Sun and the Sun shines overhead on the Tropic of Cancer (23.5° North).
- At latitudes of 23.5° are the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, north and south of the Equator.
- At 66.5° are the Arctic and Antarctic Circles, to the north and south.
- Latitudes are a measure of a location’s distance from the Equator.
- During the solstice, the Earth’s axis — around which the planet spins, completing one turn each day — is tilted in a way that the North Pole is tipped towards the sun and the South Pole is away from it.
- Typically, this imaginary axis passes right through the middle of the Earth from top to bottom and is always tilted at 23.5 degrees with respect to the sun.
