Summer solstice: what happens after the longest day of the year, will mornings get darker?

The longest day of the year is nearly upon us – how are you going to use the extra daylight hours? (Picture: Getty)

The summer solstice 2021, the longest day of the year, will fall on Monday, 21 June.

The summer solstice can also be known as festival solstice or midsummer and it occurs when one of the Earth’s poles has its maximum tilt toward the Sun, thus creating the longest amount of daylight and becoming known as the longest day of the year.

The day sees many celebrations – with people flocking to Stonehenge in a nod to its pagan traditions.

Pagans used the summer solstice as a market for planting and harvesting crops, celebrating the God and Goddess coming together.

Midsummer’s Eve – the night before the solstice – saw bonfires lit to protect against evil spirits.

But what happens after the summer solstice?

Do days get shorter after June 21?

On the summer solstice, we enjoy the most daylight of the calendar year: the sun reaches its most northern point in the sky (in the Northern Hemisphere) at around noon.

Sunrise and sunset on summer solstice will be live-streamed for free on English Heritage’s social media channels.

But what happens next?

After the summer solstice, the days start getting shorter – the length of daylight starts to decrease.

The days continue to dwindle down right up until the winter solstice.

The second solstice of the year, the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere is the day with the shortest period of daylight and will take place on Tuesday, December 21, 2021.

After the winter solstice, days slowly start to get longer again, heading into the spring and summer.

MORE : What is the summer solstice and why do people visit Stonehenge for it?

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