Folks have fun the winter solstice dawn celebrations at Stonehenge, a world-famous prehistoric monument on Salisbury Plain, England, Sunday. AP-Yonhap
LONDON — Hundreds of individuals cheered and danced round Stonehenge because the solar rose over the prehistoric stone circle on Sunday, the winter solstice.
The crowds, many in costume, had gathered earlier than daybreak, ready patiently at nighttime and chilly area in southwest England. Some sang and beat drums, whereas others took time to replicate among the many enormous stone pillars.
Many make the pilgrimage to the stone circle each summer time and winter and contemplate it a religious expertise. The traditional monument, erected between 5,000 and three,500 years in the past, was constructed to align with the motion of the solar on the solstices — key dates within the calendar for historic farmers.
Sunday is the shortest day of the yr north of the equator, the place the solstice marks the beginning of astronomical winter. It’s the alternative within the Southern Hemisphere, the place it’s the longest day of the yr and summer time will begin.
The winter solstice is when the solar makes its shortest, lowest arc, however many have fun it as a time of renewal as a result of after Sunday, the solar begins climbing once more and days will get a little bit longer day by day till late June.
