I have not figured this out yet. I was always under the impression that the solstice was the day that light starts to increase. I decided to check this out.

The day after the solstice, we got 2 seconds more of light, so my premise is actually correct, at least at my lattitude and longitude. It probably would vary.

The sun came up later for a good two weeks after the solstice. The latest sunrise was Dec. 29, not on the solstice. Sunrise stayed at 7:29 until Jan. 8th and then proceeded to get earlier, hence a gain in perceived light. This was not the darkest day tho, because, sunset had already started to occur later..

This week alone we gain 6 more minutes of time in the morning alone.

The earliest sunSET was on Dec. 6-8, at 4:22 at which time it started to back up and this week we gain almost 8 minutes at the tail end of the day. So we gained light at the end of the day and continued to lose it at the beginning of the day. Sunset today is 5:01pm.

Solar noon was before noon until Dec. 28, where it occured on noon. It is at 12:10 today.

So, actually, we did gain 2 seconds on the day after solstice, but sunrise and sunset do not correlate with solstice, they seem to move around. Solstice is the day we start to gain light, albeit slowly. 14 minutes, from the beginning of this week to the end, is substantial.

Thank you timeanddate/worldclock.com

You made my day...I mean, night, no day, no night....eh whatever....it is lighter out and I can tell! Unless that is the effect of the yellow paint (the color trend for 2010), that we painted on our walls...low VOC of course.

Alleluia, Alleluia, hum, hum, hum, (real loud now) Allllleeeeeeluuuuiaaaaa!

I feel better already!