#Stonehenge solstice: keeping it proper.

There are signs that the solstice at Stonehenge is increasingly being celebrated in the way the evidence suggests is “authentic”. See this….

Amesbury Museum and Heritage Trust
At 6pm on 21st December Amesbury will be holding its 5th Annual Solstice Eve lantern procession from the Melor hall, to the Abbey for mulled wine & mince pies and then to the Mesolithic Spring, where the public will find the Solstice lantern lit by the dying embers of light at Stonehenge a little earlier in the afternoon. Do please join in this amazing experience and take part in a 5000 year old tradition.

and this …..

Stonehenge Solstice Sunset Tour
Stonehenge is carefully aligned on a sight-line that points to the winter solstice sunset. It is thought that the Winter Solstice was actually more important to the people who constructed Stonehenge than the Summer Solstice and exciting recent archaeological revelations prove this theory….. We will be there for sunset! Witness the sun setting at Stonehenge from the ceremonial Avenue….. A unique opportunity and a truly magical experience!”

What’s not to like? Right day, right time, right place instead of wrong day, wrong time, wrong place! Shouldn’t English Heritage be encouraging those thousands who claim a traditional “right” to do it all wrong to start doing it right? After all, apart from watching the wrong phenomenon at the wrong time they’re doing so from the wrong place so the effect intended by the builders is completely lost to them and they are doing it in such numbers that both damage and disrespect (and a lot of expense) have resulted previously. It’s a funny way to show they care for the monument. They really don’t have a leg to stand on.