Video: Tikal Solstice at the Mayan Rainforest

I expect this year’s Tikal Solstice to be an even bigger solstice, which will happen on December 22 at 05:30 a.m. Here’s a fragment about the Solstice from Wikipedia.

Many cultures celebrate various combinations of the winter and summer solstices, the equinoxes, and the midpoints between them, leading to various holidays arising around these events. For the December solstice, Christmas is the most popular holiday to have arisen. In addition, Yalda, Saturnalia, Karachun, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and Yule (see winter solstice for more) are also celebrated around this time. For the June solstice, Christian cultures celebrate the feast of St. John from June 23 to 24 (see St. John’s Eve, Ivan Kupala Day, Midsummer), while Neopagans observe Midsummer, also known as Litha. For the vernal (spring) equinox, several spring-time festivals are celebrated, such as the Persian Nowruz, the observance in Judaism of Passover and in most Christian churches of Easter. The autumnal equinox has also given rise to various holidays, such as the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. At the midpoints between these four solar events, cross-quarter days are celebrated.

In the southern tip of South America, the Mapuche people celebrate We Tripantu (the New Year) a few days after the winter solstice, on June 24. Further north the Atacama people formerly celebrated this date with a noise festival, to call the Sun back. Further East, the Aymara people celebrate their New Year on June 21. A particularly beautiful and significant celebration occurs at sunrise when the sun shines right through the Gate of the Sun in Tiwanaku. Other Aymara New Year feasts occur throughout Bolivia, including at the site of El Fuerte de Samaipata… continue reading at Wikipedia.