Talk:Solstice Dragon/@comment-121.220.8.47-20120616025427/@comment-173.172.207.42-20120616062323

Has to do with the tilt of the earth and the planet's location in orbit around the sun. A solstice occurs when the axis of the planet is aligned directly with the sun. In the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice occurs when the north pole directly faces the sun and the winter solstice occurs when the south pole directly faces the sun. (This is reversed in the southern hemisphere). At the two moments in the earth's revolution when the sun is perpendicular to the axis, the days are the same length as the nights, which is why those days are called the equinoxes.