Winter solstice in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, occurs close to which two dates?

The winter solstice occurs twice each year, six months apart. The date in the Northern Hemisphere occurs about December 21st and about June 21st in the Southern Hemisphere. It is also called the hibernal solstice and is commonly referred to as midwinter. It occurs when one of the Earth's poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun.

The winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year, when the Sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky. At both the North and South poles, there is continuous darkness or twilight around the winter solstice.

Since prehistoric times, the winter solstice has been seen as a significant time of the year in many cultures, marked by festivals and rituals. It marked the symbolic death and rebirth of the Sun.

Many cultural mythologies and tradtions are derived from the winter solstice. Attesting to this are physical remains in the layouts of late Neolithic and Bronze Age archeological sites, such as Stonehenge in England and Newgrange in Ireland. The primary axes of both of these monuments seem to have been carefully aligned on sight-line pointing to the winter solstice sunrise (Newgrange) and the winter solstice sunset (Stonehenge).

Another example of early beliefs was the fact that the winter solstice was seen as the reversal of the Sun's ebbing presence in the sky, promoting concepts of the birth or rebirth of sun gods.