"Winter solstice" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... observation showed that the doubling of the canals occurred principally a little after the spring equinox and a little before the autumn equinox; that the phenomenon disappeared in large part at the epoch of the winter solstice, and disappeared altogether at the epoch of the summer solstice. Moreover, he observed that many of the canals, without regard to duplication, were invisible at times, and reappeared gradually; faint, scarcely visible lines and shadows, deepened and became more distinct ...
— Other Worlds - Their Nature, Possibilities and Habitability in the Light of the Latest Discoveries • Garrett P. Serviss
... since, owing to the small power of gravity on Mars, snow is almost three times lighter there than here. Consequently, its own weight can have very little effect in rendering it compact. Nor, indeed, is there time for much settling down. The calotte does not form until several months after the winter solstice, and it begins to melt, as a rule, shortly after the vernal equinox. (The interval between these two epochs in the southern hemisphere of Mars is 176 days.) The snow lies on the ground, at the outside, a couple of months. At times it melts while it is still fresh fallen. Thus, at the ...
— Is Mars Habitable? • Alfred Russel Wallace
... or Solstices, are points of the Ecliptic at a distance of 90 deg. from the Equinoxes, at which the sun attains its highest declination in each hemisphere. They are called the Summer and Winter Solstice according to the season in which the sun appears to pass these points ...
— Lectures in Navigation • Ernest Gallaudet Draper
... germinate. This is done in order to foretell the harvest of the coming year, for as Saint Barbara's grain grows well or ill so will the harvest of the coming year be good or bad; and also that there may be on the table when the Great Supper is served on Christmas Eve—that is to say, on the feast of the Winter Solstice—green growing grain in symbol or in earnest of the harvest of the new year that ...
— The Christmas Kalends of Provence - And Some Other Provencal Festivals • Thomas A. Janvier
... always had a tendency to worship the sun, under different names, as the giver of light and life. And their festivals in its honor took place near the winter solstice, the shortest day in the year, when the sun in December begins its upward course, thrilling men with the first distant promise of spring. This holiday was called Saturnalia among the Romans and was marked by great merriment and licence which extended even to the slaves. There were feasting ...
— Christmas - Its Origin, Celebration and Significance as Related in Prose and Verse • Various
... in celebration of the birth of Christ now celebrated all over Christendom on 25th December, as coinciding with an old heathen festival celebrated at the winter solstice, the day of the return of the sun northward, and in jubilation of the prospect of the renewal of life in ...
— The Nuttall Encyclopaedia - Being a Concise and Comprehensive Dictionary of General Knowledge • Edited by Rev. James Wood
... One of these, the Temple of Heaven, [Page 36] has a circular altar of fine white marble with an azure dome in its centre in imitation of the celestial vault. Here the Emperor announces his accession, prays for rain, and offers an ox as a burnt sacrifice at the winter solstice—addressing himself to Shang-ti, the supreme ruler, "by whom kings reign ...
— The Awakening of China • W.A.P. Martin |
