What is the Solstice?

The ancient Maya had the answers

The ancient Maya were naked eye astronomers. Through vigilant observance of the night sky they recorded countless facts about the planets and the impact of the Earth’s rotation. As stargazers for more than a thousand years, they religiously tracked these movements, inputting their findings in paperbark books called codices. The sheer volume of these observations gives credence to their conclusions.

Winter solstice is December 21 this year and our shortest day. From then until summer solstice in June, we gain sunlight. Due to the Earth's orbit and daily rotational motion—such as the wobble in the Earth's axis—the time and date of the solstice varies yearly. Both the solstice and the equinox were important to the ancient Maya, and one cannot be explained without understanding the other.

Here's why: The Maya punched numbers and astronomical calculations that could make our heads spin, but nothing was more meaningful to them than the movements of the sun.

Nothing was more meaningful than the movements of the sun

The Dresden Codex, one of only four paperbark books that survived the 1562 mass burning of unparalleled Maya documents by Spanish priests, is filled with numbers—mostly calculations for lunation cycles and Venus tables.

And one of the Maya's main calendars, the Haab, is tied to the Earth's rotation around the sun. They calculated it at 360 days, with five "extra days" at the end they considered unlucky time. With these five additional days, the Maya calendar pegs a year at 365.2422 days, within a breath of the atomic clock’s calculation of 365.2420 days.

Through deciphering the Codex, it became apparent the number four held great importance to the Maya. Some archeologists suggest it could be basic: the body has four limbs; a house has four corner posts; a milpa cornfield has four entrances; and the sun has four paths on its seasonal journey—two solstices and two equinoxes.

Other scholars suggest the number four symbolized wholeness, associated with the Sun God. In K’iche' Maya, the word for day is the same word as sun, and a day signifies one complete passage of the sun.

The Maya observed four cosmic points

The Maya also observed four cosmic points, which may relate to the four posts of the sun's daily journey: sunrise, noon, the sun on the horizon at dusk, and lastly the nadir, just before the sun moves into the underworld. These are called the four points of the Maya cosmos and scholars emphasize they are nothing like our cardinal directions of north, south, east and west.

The most relevant positions of the sun are the solstices and the equinoxes, even to us today. For the Maya skygazers, these were of utmost importance and they paid homage to these positions. Chichen Itza is a prime example.

If you've been to that pyramid at spring or fall equinox to watch the sun's shadowy descent from the top of Temple of Kukulkan to the bottom of the staircase ending at the serpent's mouth, you've no doubt been awed by the experience. 

Onlookers believe they share a moment in time with the ancient Maya. Legend has it the Maya also witnessed the same image a thousand years ago. Kukulkan, also known as Feathered Serpent—the most exalted of Maya gods—was the god of rejuvenation. His effigy symbolized the renewal of life.

Kukulkan was the Maya god of rejuvenation

The equinox is unique because on that day in March and September, night and day are equal. The solstices represent a similar idea as they are twice yearly occurrences and on those days the sun reaches its highest or lowest altitude in the sky above the horizon at solar noon.

Winter solstice is the traditional beginning of the earth’s yearly cycle. It was so important to the Maya that they placed buildings in alignment with its zenith. One archeo-astronomer states there are at least 73 city alignments to the solstice throughout the Maya world. Their incredible symmetry was planned on a grand scale.

Though we may never know all the why’s and wherefore’s, what we know for certain is this: the Maya were well aware of the solstice and equinox dates and paid homage to them in the most obvious way. They commemorated these astronomical events by building ethereal stepped pyramids in the jungle that have lasted centuries if not millennia, creating structures that align with both the solstice and equinox. So impressive, they’re still viewed with wonder to this day. And once December 21 comes, we know the earth will tilt towards the sun, reaching for more light. As the Maya knew so well.

Happy Solstice to you all!

Temple of Kukulkan, Chichen Itza. Photo John Kitchel