[Chuckster]

At 56.46.4 North Latitude:

Sunrise today 08:26

Sunset today 15:12

[mikrofon]

Never heard of this one before:

Brumalia
\brü-’mā-lē-ə\ n : a pagan festival held at the winter solstice from which some features of the celebration of Christmas seem to have originated.

The celebration of Brumalia in Byzantium was marked by much dancing and carousing.

[FroggyTheGremlim]

Actually, the date of the earliest sunset is long passed - Dec 8 this year.

I have been checking the sunset times in Pittsburgh. Here they are:

  Date     Sunset
20131209 - 4:53
20131210 - 4:53
20131211 - 4:53
20131212 - 4:53
20131213 - 4:53
20131214 - 4:53
20131215 - 4:54
20131216 - 4:54
20131217 - 4:54
20131218 - 4:55
20131219 - 4:55
20131220 - 4:56
20131221 - 4:56

Note that the sunset seems to be accelerating towards the later.

Although the solstice has the shortest amount of daylight, the later time of sunset seems to make the day longer.

I'm not sure why this is - I think it has to do with the non-sphericity of the earth.

And it only holds for the Northern Hemisphere.