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The winter solstice, also known as midwinter, is an astronomical phenomenon marking the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year. The winter solstice is in full stride on December 21, every year, which boasts the fewest hours of daylight of the year. Although the solstice gets an entire day of recognition, it happens in an instant at 1128 am EST, when the North Pole is at its farthest tilt of 23.5 degrees away from the sun. This position leaves the North Pole beyond the suns reach, and plunges it into total darkness. In the Southern Hemisphere, the sun will shine directly over head at Noon at exactly 23.5 degrees South of the equator, along the imaginary latitude line none as the Tropic of Capricorn, which runs through Australia, Chile, Southern Brazil and Northern South Africa. This is when the sun appears to be at its Southern most point in the sky. As such, the Southern Hemisphere has its longest day of the year, and the Northern Hemisphere has its shortest day of the year, on the December solstice. At the moment of the solstice, the sun will also reach its Southern most point in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere. After that moment the will stop moving southward and will begin its trek north in the sky, hence the name solstice, which means sun stand still in Latin. After the winter solstice, the days will begin to get longer in the Northern Hemisphere. But that does not mean temperatures will increase immediately. Rather, Northern mid latitudes will experience the winter chill partly because they will get about 9 hours of day light in the weeks following the solstice, compared with the roughly 15 hours of daily sunlight they get around the summer solstice. In addition, the northern Hemisphere is titled away from the sun, making it colder. In addition, even as the days get longer, the oceans, which moderates temperatures on the land, need a vast amount of energy from the sun to heat up. There are countless cultures that have recognized the winter solstice. The most famous is in Stonehenge in England. when the sun sets on the shortest day of the year, the suns rays align with Stonehenge's central Altar stone and Slaughter stone, which may have had spiritual significance to the people who built monument. Across the world in Mexico, Yucatan Peninsula, the ancient stonewalled Mayan city of Tulum also has a structure honouring the solstices. When the sun rises on the winter and summer solstices, its rays, sign through a small hole at the top of one of the stone buildings, which creates a starburst effect.