1. Go out every morning to work in your field. 2. When the Sun rises, make a note on the same fixed piece of wood, e.g., a fence. 3. Observe the leftmost and rightmost positions, these are your solstices. 4 You can now use your fence to identify and predict solstices.

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eitau_1 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

It can be tricky b/c Sun's azimuth at sunrise varies by a hundredth of a degree on days directly before and after the solstice.

Also fun fact: date of latest sunrise is slightly out of phase with seasons https://xkcd.com/2792/

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JKCalhoun 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I have read that the auspicious date of December 25th may have been intended to be the Solstice but that the degree of error for "making a note on a fence" is why we have the 25th.

Merry Sun-Fence Day everyone. ;-)

	▲	stryan 5 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		IIRC The 25th was the solstice on the Julian calendar, but when you switch it to Gregorian the solstice moves to the 21st.
	▲	mistrial9 5 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		no - it is currently three nights after the longest night. The three refers to a similar three days at Easter time.