The Winter Solstice arrives at 1:36 p.m. EST today, marking the official end of autumn and the start of the northern winter. For meteorologists, of course, winter began Dec. 1 and will end on Feb. 28.

But for the ancients, who paid far more attention to the sky than we do, the solstice marked not the start of winter, but the middle, the moment when the sun reached its southernmost point in the sky, and when the shortening and dimming of the days and the lengthening of the cold, dark nights came to an end.

It was a time for celebration - for Saturnalia in ancient Rome, a holiday which some believe Christians co-opted for their Mass and celebration of Christ's birth. It was a celestial milestone, celebrated by the Romans with a week of feasting, drinking, gift-giving and the decoration of evergreens as a symbol of life's persistence through the harsh winter.

Other cultures and religions have a great variety of parallel observances of the solstice.

After the solstice, they all knew, the sun would rise farther north each morning, and climb higher in the sky each day. The nights would begin to grow shorter, and the days longer. It was a time of year that held the first promise of spring, the return of the light and the renewal of life.

Of course, modern astronomers have a different perspective on the phenomenon, and explanations for why the darkest time of the year is not also the coldest. Here's a discussion of the science of the solstice and the seasons.

In Baltimore today, the sun rose at 7:23 a.m, and will set at 4:47 p.m.  That gives us 9 hours and 24 minutes of sunlight, and 14 hours and 36 minutes of darkness. But it only gets better from here.