The shortest day is here, Australia, so what are you going to do about it?
The day is today, the time is… almost.
On the 21st of June just before 5 p.m. AEST, Australians will bid farewell to the shortest day for the year, while those in the northern hemisphere will experience their longest day: SCIENCE!
The June solstice marks the highest (northern summer) or lowest (southern winter) point that the sun sits in the sky relative to the equator, at noon of that day.
Not to be confused with the Yuletide Pagan celebration of mid-winter in the northern hemisphere (commonly referred to as Christmas), the southern hemisphere's June solstice is *spoiler alert* definitely not Christmas. But what it lacks in Christmas joy it makes up for in perfect environmental conditions for sleeping.
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For 2016 there will only be a grand total of nine hours, 53 minutes and 53 seconds of daylight during the June solstice, with the sun setting at the standard bedtime for retirees and small babies: 4:54 p.m.
Rejoice night-owls and homebodies alike, for Tuesday night is the last moment where night time will be longer than day time. So throw caution to the wind, go to bed early or stay up late, have a candle-lit vigil like the pagans of old, or the Great Hall at Hogwarts.
For those of you who like to put your body on the line, take a leaf out of the book of the 670 all-too-eager Australians, who welcomed in the solstice early Tuesday morning with a casual nude swim in Tasmania's Derwent River.
The frigid dip, which police threatened to cancel back in 2013 for being "too obscene," features every year as part of Tasmania's Dark Mofo festival, Australia’s own solstice celebration with vivid light, art and music installations. Oh and giant oil drums filled with fire.
If that’s not enough to get you in the party spirit, rug up and enjoy your complimentary early bedtime and yearn for a day when the daylight and evening hours are interchanged with this level of startling frequency.
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