The expert explained the difference between the solstice and the equinox

The summer and winter solstices represent the days of maximum duration of daylight and darkness, while the equinox is characterized by the equality of day and night. Natalia Fominykh, a religious scholar, Doctor of Pedagogical Sciences, Professor at Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, told Izvestia about this.

"The most important difference is that if we're talking about the solstice, it's a day of absolute extremes. At the summer solstice, the longest day and the shortest night are observed, whereas in winter the situation is the opposite," she noted.

The equinox, unlike the solstice, is a "day of balance" because "day and night are equal to each other." At the moment of the solstice, the Earth tilts one of the hemispheres towards the Sun as much as possible, which creates the visual effect of stopping the sun.

"It seems that the sun freezes before changing direction," the religious scholar noted, adding that the term itself dates back to Latin and literally means "the sun has stopped."

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The expert pointed out that the height of the Sun above the horizon varies throughout the year, reaching a maximum on the day of the summer solstice and a minimum in winter. These dates are considered turning points of the annual cycle, since after the June solstice, the Sun begins to gradually lower, "thereby bringing winter closer," and after the December solstice, on the contrary, it rises, marking the approach of spring and summer.

The phenomenon of the solstice occurs twice a year and is associated with the maximum angle of inclination of the Earth to the Sun, which determines the change of seasonal cycles. In 2026, the summer solstice falls on June 21.

Earlier, the press service of the Moscow Planetarium told how long the shortest night of the year will last.