Weird observation: Even though the days are getting longer, sunrise is actually still getting later for a few days. It's just that sunset is getting later faster.
I don't know about the solstices, but the vernal equinox is a definition (it's a location on the sky) that has nothing to do with the season of the location you happen to be in. Sorry about the discrimination, you southerners should have invented astronomy and then you could have made the definitions! ;-)
Actually, it's kind of ironic (at least for us in the Northern Hemisphere) to say Happy Solstice, since general depression can be linked to the lack of sunlight in the winter months.
Oh but we are happy that the sunlight is now returning. When I lived in Sweden, it was always the loss of daylight that depressed me. Once you get to the solstice, you know it's getting better!
Built between 3100 and 2900 BC: at the winter solstice the chamber inside is illuminated by the sun.