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The winter solstice is the shortest day and longest night of the year, at least in the Northern Hemisphere.

Technically, the solstice happens today at the same time for everyone on Earth.

The winter solstice is the exact time the Northern Hemisphere tilts the farthest distance away from the sun. In New York, the solstice happens at 11:48 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, Dec. 21. The sun remains visible for just聽nine hours and 26 minutes聽in Washington, D.C., during the winter聽solstice, though days are shorter farther up north, The Washington Post reports.聽

Given the time zone differences, the solstice doesn't happen until Tuesday in Africa, Asia, and Europe, USA Today reports.

For people living in the Southern Hemisphere, Dec. 21 marks the summer solstice, the beginning of the astronomical summer and the longest day of their year, according to NASA.

In the Northern Hemisphere many people view Dec. 21 as the official beginning of winter, a day celebrated for millennia and shown through ancient monuments such as Stonehenge in England.聽

Ancient people dating back thousands of years saw the solstices as significant. The Mayan people constructed a building along the Caribbean coast in the city of Tulum, now in modern-day Mexico, that captures the sun鈥檚 rays during sunrise on the summer and winter solstice, illuminating a room through a small hole.聽

The Goseck circle in Germany dating back nearly 7,000 years is a sequence of giant circles that researchers believe were once used for religious ceremonies. Two gates discovered at the site were found to align with the sunrise and sunsets on the winter solstice.

The winter solstice聽takes place when the position of the Earth鈥檚 axis causes land in the north to slant away from the sun thus limiting the amount of rays that reach the region.聽According to NASA the solstice is related to man-made 鈥渋maginary lines鈥� used to navigate and track time.

The equator divides the earth down the middle while the North and South poles quantify the Earth鈥檚 axis of rotation and its tilt, which is the reason various parts of the world have different seasons.聽Scientists posit that the Earth is angled that way because of ancient collisions billions of years ago, leading it to its current tilt of 23.5 degrees, according to the joint NASA-NOAA educational website:

It may be the longest night, but the winter聽solstice聽is not the coldest time of the year, with January holding that title based on statistical analysis and weather trends.

The reason is called seasonal lag, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration鈥檚 (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center, which occurs mostly because of the Earth鈥檚 land and oceans release the sunlight it absorbs over time. Soil above 30 feet holds in heat, even when air temperatures plummet, NOAA said.

Anthony Arguez, a physical scientist with NOAA, told聽Katharine Gammon of聽Inside Science News Service last year that the same thing happens during the summer solstice on June 21, considered the official start of summer. In fact, the hottest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere is typically in July or August.

鈥淭here鈥檚 not a good answer for why people say that December 21 is the beginning of winter,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing magical that says that winter has to happen after the solstice.鈥�