Thousands meet at Stonehenge to celebrate winter solstice

Thousands of people including pagans, druids and dancers have gathered at the ancient Stonehenge monument for the winter solstice, marking the shortest day of the year.

During sunrise at 8.09am, there was a flurry of drumming, chanting and singing.

However, there was no actual sun in Wiltshire, because of low cloud across the site.

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

The summer and winter solstices are the only occasions when visitors can go right up to the stones at Stonehenge.

The stone circle, which includes giant pillars, was erected starting about 5,000 years ago by a sun-worshiping Neolithic culture.

But its full purpose is still debated.

Recently it has been speculated the site may have had a political as well as spiritual significance.

The effort to transport the stones hundreds of miles, with only primitive tools, suggests they had a unifying purpose.

Also it has been discovered that the stone lying flat at the centre of the monument, called the “altar stone” originated in Scotland, not Wales, as originally thought.

The smaller stones – bluestones – that form the inner horseshoe and outer circle are known to have been quarried from the Preseli Hills of western Wales.

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Stonehenge is built on the alignment of the midsummer sunrise and the midwinter sunset and it is believed that solstices have been celebrated there for thousands of years.

The winter solstice was also observed in many different parts of the world.

In Japan, there is a tradition of taking a yuzu bath – steeped with yuzu citrus – which myth suggests will prevent you catching a cold for a year.

And in Palma, on the Spanish island of Majorca, people gathered to watch the sunrise – with the city’s cathedral providing a spectacular backdrop.