26/12/2025
Five days after Solstice, here's what most people miss about "the light returning."
It's not linear. It's not symmetrical. It's not what you expect.
December 26th, 2025. You're five days into the light's return. The sun is measurably higher at noon—25.1 degrees versus Solstice's 25.0 degrees. Total daylight is increasing—9 hours 17 minutes today versus 9 hours 15 minutes on December 21st. Two more minutes of light. The math checks out. The light is returning.
But here's the paradox that breaks most people's intuition: sunrise is still getting later.
On Solstice (December 21st), sunrise in New York happened at 7:16 AM. Today, December 26th, sunrise is at 7:17 AM. Tomorrow it will be 7:18 AM. The sunrise keeps sliding later through early January, reaching its latest point on January 4th at 7:20 AM—two full weeks after Solstice.
Wait. If the light is returning, why is sunrise getting later?
Because sunset already turned around two weeks before Solstice. December 8th had the earliest sunset of the year—4:28 PM in New York. Since then, sunset has been creeping later each day. By Solstice, sunset was already at 4:32 PM. Today it's 4:37 PM. The evening light has been returning since early December. You probably felt it even before Solstice—that slight shift in when darkness falls.
This asymmetry happens because of Earth's elliptical orbit creating what astronomers call the "equation of time." Earth moves faster when it's closer to the Sun (perihelion, happening in early January) and slower when it's farther (aphelion, in July). This variable orbital speed means solar noon—when the sun crosses the meridian—shifts slightly throughout the year. That shift creates the mismatch between earliest sunset, Solstice, and latest sunrise.
The result: mornings keep getting darker for two weeks after Solstice, but total daylight still increases because evenings are brightening faster than mornings are darkening.
By January 4th, the morning turnaround happens. Sunrise finally stops sliding later and begins its long march earlier through spring. From that point forward, both ends of the day are gaining light. Mornings brighten. Evenings extend. The progression becomes intuitive again.
But right now, in late December, you're in the weird asymmetrical phase. The cosmic turning point happened. The light is mathematically returning. But your morning commute keeps getting darker. It feels contradictory. It feels like the Solstice lied.
The ancients tracked this carefully. They didn't just mark Solstice—they marked the sunset turnaround in early December and the sunrise turnaround in early January. Three separate but related thresholds. Modern culture collapses it all into "Winter Solstice = shortest day = light returns." Technically true. But incomplete.
The full story is messier and more interesting: the light returns in stages. Evening light first. Total daylight second. Morning light last. Each phase has its own rhythm, its own turning point, its own progression. You're in the middle phase right now—total light increasing, but mornings still surrendering darkness reluctantly.
This is why January often feels darker than December despite having longer days. The morning darkness persists. You wake up, it's black outside. You leave for work, still dark. That psychological weight of waking into darkness doesn't lift until mid-January when sunrise finally starts moving earlier.
Five days post-Solstice, the light is returning. But not all at once. Not symmetrically. Not the way your brain expects. It's returning in the patient, asymmetrical, orbital-mechanics way that requires you to pay attention to more than one variable.
The evening sky is already proving it. The morning sky is still testing your faith.
Both are telling the truth.
