Summer And Winter Solstice 2024. The winter solstice is the day with the fewest hours of sunlight throughout the year, making it the “shortest day” of the year. A solstice isn’t a whole day.

Instead, it’s the moment when the sun is farthest north in our sky. In fact the word equinox is taken from the latin aequus (equal) and nox(night) or equal night.