This year Arkansas’s winter solstice will occur on December 21 at 9:27 pm. On the day of the solstice, the sun will reach its southernmost point in the sky and, in the Northern Hemisphere, travel the shortest distance.
Prehistoric people were keenly aware of the sun’s movements in the sky throughout the year, and all over the world they build mounds, henges, and similar structures so that they would know, from observing where the sun rose and set, the exact days of the solstices and equinoxes.
The Plum Bayou Mounds in central Arkansas are such structures, as is the Cahokia woodhenge in Illinois. This month, watch the sun as it rises at 7:12 am on December 21 and rejoice in anticipation of the longer days to come.