"The Real New Year" is Now
"Happy solstice tomorrow," Andy told us yesterday, "the real new year begins at 9.21am GMT on 21st December."
That's 3 minutes ago (at the time of me typing this sentence).
Yesterday we discussed the rotation of the Earth around itself, the Moon's orbit around the Earth, and Earth's elliptic route around the Sun. To say that December 31st at midnight is astronomically significant would not be honest, no matter the leap years, leap seconds etc. For the northern and southern hemispheres (not equator) the significant turning point is right now. For us in the northern hemisphere the days are about to get longer. Manchester will feel almost like spring (13 degrees) this Christmas. █