Artwork for Julian and Benjamin
Julian, do you remember when you were drawing pictures of your baby inside Mama and you wanted to call Nonna and talk about your drawings, but Mama said that Nonna was sleeping? Nonna was sleeping because it was nighttime for Nonna!
Our world is on a planet called earth. We all live on earth together, so why is it nighttime for Nonna and Nonno when it’s daytime where you are?
That’s partly because the earth is gigantic! It is a giant ball-shape, bigger than anything you have ever seen in your whole life; it is 24,901 miles around. When you are at the farm and you look up at the sky, how far can you see? The sky circles all the way around the earth and you can’t see all the way around the earth; it’s so big, plus, we can see only in a straight line!
You know what the sun is, right? It is a star! Stars are hot and bright. Our star, the sun, is even bigger than earth, and it makes light in our sky that is so bright that we cannot look at it. The sun is also very hot, so it heats our world. We feel the heat from our star because it is closer to earth than the other stars. The earth is, however, far enough away from the sun, and big enough, that the sun can shine on only one side of the earth at a time.
In fact, that is why the sun does not shine in the sky at night, and why we are asleep while you are awake.
You see, our planet earth spins; it turns very slowly around and around. It takes 24 hours for the earth to go around one time. (24 hours = 1 awake-time + 1 sleeping-time) When you wake up in the morning, your side of the earth has just gotten into the path of the sunlight. The sun is just beginning to light up your side of the earth, and Nonna and Nonno are all the way over on the other side of the earth where the sunlight can’t get to. We are asleep. When Mama picks you up from Kita, the earth is just beginning to turn away from the sun on your side of the earth, while Nonna’s side is just beginning to see the sunlight. We are beginning to wake up. When you go to bed at nighttime, we have not even had our lunch yet. When we are ready for bed, you are waking up again.
None of us can feel the earth turning because we’re on the earth, moving with it. In fact, it looks more like the sky is turning; that’s why we say things like, “The sun is setting.” It does look like that; at the end of the day it looks like the sun is sinking and disappearing. Actually, the earth is turning away from the sun! In the morning, when we say, “The sun is rising,” what do you think is really happening? Right: the earth is turning toward the sun.
That’s why Nonna is sleeping when everyone there on your side of earth is awake.
We can’t wait to visit your side of the earth again soon. We are waiting with big hearts full of hugs and kisses for you!