The solstice happens twice each year: around June 20–21 (summer solstice in the Northern Hemisphere) and around December 20–22 (winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere).

Key dates for 2025

  • Summer solstice 2025: Friday, June 20, 2025, with the exact moment around 10:42 p.m. Eastern Time in North America.
  • Winter solstice 2025: Sunday, December 21, 2025, marking the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

What a solstice is

A solstice is the moment when the sun reaches its greatest distance north or south of Earth’s celestial equator, due to Earth’s axial tilt.

This creates the longest day and shortest night (June solstice in the Northern Hemisphere) and the shortest day and longest night (December solstice in the Northern Hemisphere).

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.