Thousands celebrate solstice at Stonehenge
Dressed as Druids, Wiccans, hippies, punks or just as regular tourists, nearly 25,000 people gathered Sunday at Stonehenge on Britain’s Salisbury Plain, marking the summer solstice as people have done for thousands of years.
The sun rose at 4:52 a.m. on the longest day of the year, and for the lucky dozens who made it through the crowds to the interior of the neolithic stone circle, the rising sun could be seen in near perfect alignment with the Heel Stone, outside the famous ring.
It is this remarkable alignment, and another that aligns with sunset on the winter solstice, that has inspired such awe and interest in Stonehenge. It shows that whoever built it had a detailed understanding of the celestial path of the sun, but its ritual purpose or meaning has never been fully determined. It is deeply fixed in the British imagination, though, as a place of mystery and spirit, linked (though not necessarily by science) to the Iron Age Druid priestly caste and the foundational myth of King Arthur.
Some theories have it as primarily a ceremonial place to mark the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Others see it as related to a nearby ritual feasting site, with burial mounds and a large building, long since rotted away. Much effort has gone into explaining how the stones got here from a quarry almost 400 kilometres away in Wales, and still it is not precisely clear whether they came by glacial movement, or by raft, or sled, or dragged on rollers, or even by an elaborate process of wobbling them along with ropes.
The welcoming of the solstice, one of the few occasions when visitors are allowed to walk among the stones, was a peaceful affair, with only nine arrests for drug offences, far fewer than last year.
“Solstice 2015 has been a great success with approximately 23,000 people celebrating at Stonehenge in the positive, friendly atmosphere as they waited for the sunrise,” said Gavin Williams, who led the Wiltshire police in managing the event. “This year the crowds were able to see the sun as it appeared over the horizon, before it disappeared under low cloud. The success of the event depends largely on the good nature of those attending and we are pleased that people could enjoy solstice in the spirit of the event.”