Winter Solstice: Pagans, druids and tourists descend on Stonehenge to mark the shortest day of the year

Thousands of tourists, pagans, druids and those simply longing for the promise of spring marked the dawn of the shortest day of the year at the ancient Stonehenge monument on Saturday.

Revelers cheered and beat drums as the sun rose over the giant standing stones at 8:09 a.m. on the winter solstice – the shortest day and longest night in the Northern Hemisphere.

No one could see the sun through the low winter cloud, but that didn’t stop a flurry of drumming, singing and chanting as dawn broke.

Chris Smith, 31, who had come to Stonehenge for the first time for the winter solstice, said he was there because of the “spiritual appeal of the area”.

He said: ‘This is all about renewal, rebirth, as we enter the new year, and it is also a good time to acknowledge what has taken place in the past year.

“For me, I’ve had a bit of a tumultuous year, a lot has happened in the last 24 months, and this is a chance to consolidate everything that’s happened this year and bury that in the future. past and can then move on to the next new year.’

The official added: “There is such an atmosphere. I mean, if you look around, you’ve got everyone here, there’s such an energy in the room.

‘You really feel that it’s all good vibes. People just have a good time here, and that is one of the advantages of these types of events.

There will be less than eight hours of daylight in England on Saturday, but then the days will get longer until the summer solstice in June.

The apparent position of the sun in the sky changes throughout the year.

This is because the Earth rotates on its axis at an angle of 23.4 degrees.

During summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the North Pole is tilted toward the sun, receiving more direct sunlight and longer daylight hours.

Meanwhile, the North Pole is tilted away from the sun during the Northern Hemisphere winter, resulting in fewer hours of daylight.

Solstices occur twice a year and are known as the ‘summer solstice’ and the ‘winter solstice’.

‘The summer solstice, which occurs around June 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, is the day of the year with the longest period of daylight, while the winter solstice, on or around December 21 in the Northern Hemisphere, is the day with the shortest period of daylight . daylight,” the Met Office explained.

According to the astronomical definition, today is the beginning of winter.

‘The astronomical calendar determines the seasons as a result of the 23.5 degrees tilt of the Earth’s rotation axis in relation to its orbit around the sun,’ the Met Office explains.

However, many weather forecasters, including the Met Office, often use a meteorological definition of the seasons.

Meteorological seasons consist of dividing the seasons into four periods of three months each.

According to this definition, the first day of winter is always December 1 and ends on February 28 (or 29 during a leap year).

Winter Solstice is celebrated by cultures around the world. In Britain, Stonehenge is a winter and solstice celebration site.

People visit the Stonehenge to catch a glimpse of the sun as it shines through the stones, including neo-druids and neo-pagans.

The ancient structure was built to frame the sun during the winter sunrise and summer solstice, signaling when the days are getting longer or shorter.

For ancient cultures, the passage of time was important, especially for people who lived around Stonehenge and were farmers who grew crops.

In winter the sun sets southwest of the stone circle.

The solstices are the only occasions when visitors can go straight to the stones of Stonehenge, and thousands are willing to get up before sunrise to soak up the atmosphere.

The stone circle, whose giant pillars each required 1,000 people to move, was founded about 5,000 years ago by a sun-worshipping Neolithic culture.

Its full purpose is still debated: was it a temple, a solar calculator, a cemetery, or a combination of all three?

In a paper published in the journal Archeology International, researchers from University College London and Aberystwyth University say the site on Salisbury Plain, about 80 miles southwest of London, may have had both political and spiritual significance.

That follows the recent discovery that one of the stones at Stonehenge – the unique stone that lies flat in the center of the monument and is called the ‘altar stone’ – came from Scotland, hundreds of miles north of the site.

Some of the other stones were brought from the Preseli Hills in south-west Wales, almost 150 to 150 miles to the west.

Lead author Mike Parker Pearson from UCL’s Institute of Archeology said the geographical diversity suggests Stonehenge may have served as a “monument of unification for the peoples of Britain, honoring their eternal links with their ancestors and the cosmos.” ‘