London On Winter Solstice

Winter Solstice – Six Facts You Need To Know

To learn more about Masterflex Food Grade Hoses, this Winter Solstice, please continue to the end of the article.

1. Winter Solstice, in December, marks the longest night and shortest day of the year.

2. Only 7 hours and 50 minutes of sunlight, in parts of the UK, is given on this day

3. Stonehenge has an alignment on a sight-line pointing to the Winter Solstice sunset

Stonehenge

Stonehenge Winter Solstice

4. The exact time of every solstice, every year, is different; and for this year it will be on the 22:23 on Friday, 21 December

5. Solstice is a derivative of a Latin word which means ‘A-Sun Standing Still’

Solstice - Sun Standing Still

Solstice – Sun Standing Still

6. Winter Solstice is an astronomical phenomenon which occurs when one of the Earth’s poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun; therefore, it happens twice yearly (In June and December), once in each hemisphere.

Equinoxes Solstice

Divad [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons

Six Traditional & Exciting Food Ideas For The Winter Solstice Celebration

Since Friday the 21st of December will be the shortest day of the year; this day can be an excuse for another celebration. This day, at least in the UK, can be a cold and dark day. Therefore, to enjoy this day, you must stay warm, and the most critical part will be figuring out what to eat during your winter solstice celebration!  The Christmas week is about turkey dinners and the like, why not celebrate the Winter Solstice with something new and have it stand out from the rest?

Did you know that the celebration of Winter Solstice happens around the world, together with various foods in tradition?  Here are a few fun foods you can try on the 21st of December:

1. HOT CHOCOLATE DRINK

Hot Chocolate

Hot Chocolate

Celebrate the beginning of winter, the shortest day of the year, with a mug of hot chocolate; and the feeling of the glamorous British summers nearing.

2. SWEDISH SAFFRON BUNS

Swedish Saffron Buns

Swedish Saffron Buns

Saint Lucy’s Day, Sweden’s Winter Solstice, is also called the Feast of Saint Lucy; a Christian feast day celebrated on the 13 December. Her feast once concurred with the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year before calendar reforms, so her day has become a Christian festival of light.

Therefore, you can experiment with international traditions, or rituals, by indulging in something pretty delicious from across the river, i.e. Lussekatter, the saffron bun, associated with St Lucia’s Day.

3. RICE PUDDING

Rice Pudding - Winter Solstice

Rice Pudding – Winter Solstice

A Separate tradition from the other side of the planet, we bet you would never have guessed, is having rice pudding; a must-have dessert at your Winter Solstice celebrations whether you are Scandinavian or not.

4. LAMB

Lamb Barbecue - On Winter Solstice

Lamb Barbecue – On Winter Solstice

To bring way to warmth to the body, from the cold winter, you can have a winter lamb BBQ; moreover, it would be a change from having turkey in the oven. Furthermore, lamp, or even lamp chops, would bring warmth to the body amidst the cold of winter; and that’s apparently why the celebration of Winter Solstice is with lamb in wintry Northern China.

5. POMEGRANATE & WATERMELONS FOR WINTER SOLSTICE

Pomegranate

Pomegranates

Pomegranate & watermelons are fruits that most seem to adore, but perhaps it’s hardly ever consumed by most; Iranians, traditionally, serve them on the night of winter solstice celebrations (Shab-e Yalda); their red colour, to the Persians, is a symbol of the crimson hues of dawn and glow of life.

Above all, the longest and darkest night, in Iran, is celebrated with friends and family; they eat and drink and read poetry, together, until well after midnight.

6. DRIED NUTS

Dried Fruits

Dried Fruits

Another Persian tradition is to eat dried fruits and nuts, with friends and family, wrapped in tulle and tied with ribbon; similar to the ones used on weddings and showers “party favours”. This mixture of dried fruit and nut mix is called “Ajil”, which is set out on the table during winter solstice parties.

Hoses for the Food Industry During Winter Solstice

During Christmas time, production facilities of the food industries are operating at a high capacity to transport food from one location to another; but these food industries are subject to stringent requirements to guarantee the safe processing of festive food to be manufactured. Therefore, Masterflex hoses and connectors comply, by testing and certification, with the latest food and pharma industry standards; i.e. not all hoses are suitable for transporting edibles, but hoses that comply with strict regulations and directives.

Factory - Food Hose

Factory Using Food Hoses

All Masterflex food-grade hoses have EU 10/2011 regulations for food-grade quality. Furthermore, Masterflex food hoses also comply with FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) guidelines and the German Food and Feed Code (LFGB).

Masterflex employs stainless steel wire spirals for all of its food hoses; thus, the food grade quality of the conveyed medium is maintained, even in the event of abrasion of the wall material underneath the wire spiral.

Some applications, for various Masterflex & Food Hoses, include:

• Stopping food, like chocolate, from freezing during transportation using electrically heated hoses.

Electrically Heated Hose

Templine – Electrically Heated Hose

• Transportation of solid, liquid and gaseous media in the food, pharmaceutical and chemical industry; where antistatic properties are of prime importance.

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Happy Winter Solstice!

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