Last Monday was December 21st – the Winter Solstice, or the shortest day of the year (in the Northern Hemisphere). The 21st would also have also been the first day of Nivôse, the first winter month of the long-abandoned French Republican Calendar, named after the Latin word nivosus, which, appropriately means “snow or snowy”. Collected here are a handful of recent photographs of these snowy days for those of us in the north. (42 photos total)

To see all the images visit – Source : http://www.boston.com/

Children play with snow in the middle of the traffic roundabout at Columbus Circle in New York City on December 20, 2009. Heavy snowfall blanketed the East Coast on Saturday, disrupting public transport and air travel, and hampering holiday shoppers on the last weekend before Christmas. (REUTERS/Finbarr O’Reilly)

Deer are pictured in the snow in Knole park, Sevenoaks, Kent, England on December 18, 2009. (CARL DE SOUZA/ AFP/Getty Images)

Snowkiter Peter Mueller surfs the slopes of the Bernina Pass, near St. Moritz in the Canton of Grisons, South-Eastern Switzerland, on Thursday, Dec. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Keystone, Dietmar Stiplovsek)

A man walks in the street during a snowstorm in Quebec City December 9, 2009. According to Environment Canada wind gusts have reached speed of up to 100km/h. (REUTERS/Mathieu Belanger)

Lindsay Vonn of the United States clears a gate during the 1st leg of the FIS World Cup Women’s Slalom December 13, 2009 in Are, Sweden. (OLIVIER MORIN/AFP/Getty Images)

A deer pauses in Knole Park, Sevenoaks, Kent, England on December 18, 2009. (CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)

A man comes up from the icy water of a lake in Minsk, Belarus on December 20, 2009. Belarussian ice swimmers, known as “walruses”, believe that their hobby helps to build up resistance to many illnesses and is crucial for surviving the long winter. (REUTERS/Vladimir Nikolsky)

A snowboarder competes during the US Snowboard Grand Prix men’s qualifier on December 11, 2009 in Copper Mountain, Colorado. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Celebrants engage in druidic rituals outside the Stone Circle at Stonehenge, southern England as Druids and revelers celebrate the Winter Solstice, Tuesday Dec. 22, 2009. (AP PhotoBen Birchall/PA)

A squirrel leaps over a thick blanket of snow while moving from tree to tree near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on the National Mall December 21, 2009 in Washington, DC. (CHIP SOMODEVILLA/AFP/Getty Images)

A worker shapes a snow sculpture prior to the Harbin International Ice and Snow Festival in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China on December 18, 2009. The 26th Ice and Snow Festival will kick off on January 5, 2010, local media reported. (REUTERS/Sheng Li)

The San Gabriel mountain range is capped with snow behind the skyline of downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, Dec 8, 2009. Monday’s dawn-to-dusk rainfall had raised fears in Southern California foothill communities that flooding and mud flows could surge out of vast areas burned bare by wildfires, but the cold storm left a dusting of snow across the mountains north and east of Los Angeles instead of unleashing downpours. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A swimmer jumps into the icy waters of a river on a snowy winter day in Taiyuan, Shanxi province, China on December 7, 2009. (REUTERS/Stringer)

An assistant of a street photographer dressed as a tiger – the Chinese calendar sign for 2010 – helps a council worker to clear snow in a bid to warm himself on Independence square in Kiev, Ukraine on December 22, 2009. (NATALIYA SLIPCHUK/AFP/Getty Images)

A boy slides down a hill on a plastic disk December 22, 2009 in New York’s Central Park. (DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images)

Source : www.Boston.com

To see all 42 Images visit : http://www.boston.com/