Happy Holidays

This is the 15 meters tall tree on the marketplace in Järvenpää, with new decorations. Photo taken before three in the afternoon when we were getting the last groceries for Christmas a week ago. The sun rises at 9.23 and sets at 15.22 today. The day is one minute longer than yesterday. Tomorrow will be two minutes longer than today.

December 17 - Stop for a moment

The Winter Solstice is so near that for a week already the sun has stopped setting earlier and earlier and settled to set at 3.12 pm. From the Solstice day on the 21st the days start getting longer again in the afternoons. The sun still rises one minute later every morning until December 25th, then stops there and rises at that minute until December 30th.

Time to sit by the fire with my knitting and a cup of hot tea.

Christmas tree

... but no snow at sight. The little cabins look almost out of place on the market place in Järvenpää, but their Christmas tree is big and beautiful, especially after dark when the lights are shining.

 

Today is the shortest day of the year, Winter solstice. The darkness lasts for 16 hours and 15 minutes here where I live, and we have 58 minutes of dawn and dusk. At the top of Finland the last sunrise for the year was on November 25th, and the next sunrise will be on January 18th next year. This is a long country! But we'll be catching up rapidly, and in three months our day and night are the same as yours, wherever you are.

Short Days

This is the time of the shortest days of the year. The Winter Solstice is next week, but the sunset time is already fixed at 3.12 pm for eight days. The mornings will still change for darker, as the sun will rise about one minute later every day until Winter Solstice. From today's 9.16 we will go to 9.23 on the 21st. After that, the sun will start setting later but also keep rising later until the end of the year, just by two minutes, while the sunset time will have changed to 10 minutes later. Some time in January we really can see and feel the change in the amount of light.