.
(Can one say that about Solstice as well as Christmas? Oh well….)
Scrooge might well get grumpy about English Heritage’s announcement about tomorrow’s event: “The [Winter Solstice at Stonehenge] is traditionally celebrated at the sunrise closest to the time when the sun is stationary”.
Is it? Doesn’t their own latest research indicate Stonehenge was designed to view winter sunsets not sunrises – and from outside the stones not inside?! Yet tomorrow they’ll let thousands into the circle to hoot and holler at the rising sun and won’t let on to them that they think they’re in the wrong place and 16 hours too late!
Shouldn’t EH, not the attendees, specify what the authentic celebration should be? After all, it is they who commissioned the research, it is they who are discomforted by the event and it is they who would save loads of money by not having to stage a massive free shindig inside a world heritage monument in the middle of the night!
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UPDATE Mon 22 Dec: Stranger and stranger (x3) ….
From the Western Daily Press this morning:
“Dozens of people turned up to the stones yesterday morning for the sunrise, but were told they had come a day too early” and
“The winter solstice sunrise is the most important moment in the pagan calendar – the moment of rebirth when the days begin to get longer again. It was the moment Stonehenge was aligned for – not the summer solstice sunrise.”
4 comments
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22/12/2014 at 19:38
hoodedman1
Usual bad news from recent Stonehenge solstices–did you see the press pics of winter solstice? One photo has a bunch of people falling all over a stone topped by a plastic animal? dinosaur?…and they have poured some kind of oily-looking liquid ON THE STONE!! Disgusting!
24/12/2014 at 18:27
billy
bollocks
24/12/2014 at 18:40
Pat
Were there many like you at the sostice? Who paid for you? Me?
31/12/2014 at 16:17
Jim606
Hello there,
Whilst I agree with a lot of what you state, this however, is not the whole story. Yes, no doubt the real focus of the original Stonehenge winter solstice was based around the sunset and it does seem that ancient pilgrims walked to the stones from Durrington Walls via the course of the River Avon and the Avenue to witness the sunset before traversing back to Durrington. However the entrance/exit Avenue linking Durrington Walls with the River Avon (rediscovered by the Mike Parker-Pearson and the ‘Riverside Project’ team) was found to align to the winter solstice sunrise, so this does indicate that the sunrise would have had at least some significance to the ancients.
Anyway, bringing things up to date, the dawn gathering which currently takes place at the stones is not an all-night affair it’s an hour and a half period of Managed Open Access (MOA). The summer solstice is the all-night party bash with the bulk of the problems. The early morning winter solstice MOA suits English Heritage and many of the other interested parties because they can ‘get ‘em in and get ‘em out’ within a short window. In fact, many people don’t even stay the full 1½ hours and start to leave well before 9am. Whilst there has been (& possibly continues to be) some overnight parking on the nearby drove roads some reports of recent winter solstices have stated that there are more controlled than before with security staff eager to move people on after 09:00.
The whole basis of the winter solstice MOA is that it starts to get light as people enter monument field so that they can have a look around, do their own thing for a bit and take part in the Druid ceremony, if they so wish before leaving. Sunset access however would involve a different set of rules. Firstly like the sunrise, the weather is not always clear and the sunset is rarely visible. Whilst I have witnesses an amazingly clear winter sunset with a small group of about twenty, I’ve also stood there in the dark swirling mist at 16:00 with practically no-one else. Having a period of access based around it getting lighter makes matters easier in this respect.
The Lantern Parade seems to have fizzled out into a more localised event based in Amesbury and you don’t mention any of the potential issues with having a sunset event whilst it gets dark.
Yes, I too would like to see more made of the sunset and hopefully this will happen once the A344 has finally been opened up following the establishment of the grass seed, but it isn’t as easy as you point out. The route to and from the Heel Stone may have to be lit for example with retractable floodlights and this would probably be an added expense. Then there is the issue of the solstice being about the return of the light and the current dawn gathering has become an established event where people can access the stones for free. This is especially important for people travelling from distance. If an extra period of access (all-be-it) one not situated inside the stones, but outside as you state, it is likely that people would want to stay on for both periods of access. Another potential issue here might be that the winter solstice could then become another all-night party? Whilst numbers for the winter solstice are generally small (1,500 in 2014) any change of access needs to be carefully considered.