December 23, 2007 - Changing Seasons Welcome to the Nature Notebook. Yesterday our Sun reached its farthest point south in relation to Earth marking the Winter Solstice, the official beginning of winter. Historically the solstice was known as Midwinter. We now have 9 hours 13 minutes of daylight and well over 14 hours of night. The length of day and night will begin to shift slowly at first, but then somewhat faster as we move through the winter toward spring and then the Summer Solstice in June. The word solstice means sun standing still and refers to the fact that for several days in a row the sun appears to rise from the same point on the horizon before it begins shifting back north again. Many ancient cultures celebrated this time as a turning point, a time of rebirth. They knew that after these cold days of winter spring was not too far away.  This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.