Why does the winter solstice occur?
The winter solstice (and the summer solstice) ocur for a very interesting reason. The sun ‘moves’ around the earth in a path that is very tilted to the earth’s equator. When the sun is farthest on this path north of the equator, it is the summer solstice. And when it’s farthesr south of the equator, it’s the winter solstice. From the northern hemisphere, that is.