An adorable animation of the Earth total with miniature palm tree and deckchair is today’s Google Doodle picture. Google is today celebrating the summer solstice, the day with the longest period of daylight in the year. This denotes the start of summer, and is a significant moment in numerous cultures.

What is the summer solstice?

The summer solstice is a noteworthy astronomical occasion which happens each year.

It happens when the Earth is tilted at its most prominent point towards the Sun.

Our planet has a 23.5-degree tilt, which means one side of the planet faces from the Sun and one side towards.

The side, or hemisphere, looking towards the Sun encounters summer while the other will have winter.

For the UK the solstice keeps going from 4.43am till 9.21pm, giving 16 hours and 38 minutes of daylight.

By difference throughout the winter solstice, on December 21, the sun sets before 4pm and doesn’t rise again until 8am.

How is the summer solstice marked apart around the globe?

The summer solstice is celebrated in various ways around the planet.

In the UK thousands assemble around Stonehenge in Wiltshire to watch the sunrise.

This occasion has strong connections with paganism, with numerous druids going to every year.

Numerous Ukrainians, particularly the youthful, mark what they term ‘Ivan Kupala Day’ by leaping over fire.

They believe the flames will expel sick fortune and give them good luck for the summer ahead.

Fires likewise play a significant role in denoting the event in Finland, in parts of which it stays light practically throughout the day during the summer solstice.

Finns light campfires beside lakes and dance around maypole type contraptions.

In Mongolia fire customs are likewise performed, some portion of the Mongolian shamanism culture that was suppressed for 70 years during communist rule.

What is astronomical summer?

In the astronomical calendar the begin and end dates of summer depend on the changing position of Earth in relation to the sun and the subsequent sunlight based occasions of equinoxes and solstices. In the Northern Hemisphere spring finishes and summer begins moment of the June solstice, which happens each year between June 20 and June 22. Summer closures and harvest time begins at the moment of the September equinox, which happens each year on September 21 to 23. In the Southern Hemisphere summer keeps going from the December solstice (December 20 to 23) to the March equinox (March 19 to 21).

The begin and end dates for summer given on this page are the dates of astronomical summer in the Northern Hemisphere and depend on Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), which for practical purposes is identical to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). While summer begins and finishes at a similar moment in time everywhere throughout the Northern Hemisphere, the date and local time differ from place to place contingent upon the year and a location’s time zone. For locations that are ahead UTC (further east) it might fall on the day after, and for locations that are behind UTC (further west) it might fall on the day preceding. To discover the exact date and time of summer 2019 in people’s area use this seasons calculator.