The change of year is not aligned with the winter solstice. In fact the new year has been intentionally moved to an arbitrary date to obscure the solstice behind religious holidays.
It’s basically a week away from the solstice, still. A little more than a week. It’s exactly a week from Christmas Eve, which is what many countries (like where I live) celebrate as “the” Christmas. It’s pretty clear still, to me at least, that we celebrate this time because of the sun returning to higher distances above the horizon.
The change of year is not aligned with the winter solstice. In fact the new year has been intentionally moved to an arbitrary date to obscure the solstice behind religious holidays.
It’s basically a week away from the solstice, still. A little more than a week. It’s exactly a week from Christmas Eve, which is what many countries (like where I live) celebrate as “the” Christmas. It’s pretty clear still, to me at least, that we celebrate this time because of the sun returning to higher distances above the horizon.