This year's winter solstice will take place on Thursday, Dec. 21, i-e Today, in the Northern Hemisphere,
while the Southern Hemisphere experiences its summer solstice.
Because the Earth's axis is tilted farthest from the sun, winter solstice is the darkest,
shortest day of the year.
Around the world, people celebrate the winter solstice.
China's Dongzhi Festival celebrates the winter solstice, along with the imminent return to
longer days.
At the ancient ruins of Stonehenge in England, thousands gather before sunrise to celebrate.
In Japan, some partake in a traditional hot bath, soaking with a Japanese citrus fruit,
called yuzu, to greet the winter solstice while protecting against common colds.
But human interest in the movements of the sun is far from new.
Prior to Spanish conquest in the 16th century, Maya civilization prospered in southern Mexico,
Guatemala, Belize and western Honduras.
The Maya are known primarily for their elaborate constructions, including pyramids and palaces,
and their writing system, which was the most sophisticated in the New World.
According to a professor at the University of Arizona, the Maya were fascinated with
time and the movement of celestial bodies, and the calendar is a major part of their
writing system.
The two main Maya calendars were the Long Count calendar and the Calendar Round.
The Long Count starts with a fixed date in 3,114 B.C. and is based on a 360-day year.
It is organized in a 20-year cycle, and at the completion of each cycle the Maya held
a large ceremony to celebrate the passage of time.
Larger cycles consist of 400 years and 5,200 years.
The latter cycle completed on the winter solstice of Dec. 21, 2012, which some feared would
represent the end of the world.
However, the Maya never talked about this completion date in apocalyptic terms.
The Calendar Round, on the other hand, is a 365-day solar calendar combined with a 260-day
cycle.
After 52 years, the Calendar Round returns to the original combination of days, and a
new cycle begins.
Without tracking the movements of the sun, the Maya would not have been able to create
the complex, precise calendars that they did.
The Maya really made a point of tracking the movement of the sun.
And the solstice would have been the most important fixed point for the creation of
their calendar system.
The Maya used their calendar system to record historical events with unprecedented precision.
The Maya also built entire ceremonial complexes that were positioned specifically for the
celebration of the solar cycle.
At a site called Uaxactun in Guatemala, the ancient ruins of a Maya ceremonial complex
illustrates the stunning precision of the Maya.
A pyramid on the western side of the complex faces a raised, elongated structure with three
temples on the eastern side.
The northern temple was built to observe the summer solstice, the southern temple was for
the winter solstice and the temple in the center was for the equinox.
All three are aligned precisely so that, during these solar phenomena, half of the pyramid
appears in light while the other half is in darkness.