London.- Nearly 8,500 people gathered this Sunday at the megalithic monument of Stonehenge, southwest of England, to celebrate the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.
Shortly before 08:00 GMT the sky began to clear,
until the sun made its official entrance nine minutes later, to the cheers of the crowd -about 8,500, according to the BBC- who celebrated the arrival of winter with pagan attire and to the sound of ancestral chants and dances.
Although the number of attendees was high, it fell far short of the summer solstice gathering on June 21st, which was attended by around 25,000 people, despite the heatwave that the United Kingdom was experiencing at the time.
The
circular megalithic monument, UNESCO heritage, was built around the year 2,500 BC and its 93 visible stones are strategically placed to align with the movements of the sun.
Therefore, during the solstices, the two annual moments (summer and winter) in which the sun is farthest from the equator, a unique light phenomenon is generated in Stonehenge.
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On the winter solstice, like this December 21st, the sun is at its lowest point in the sky and can be seen through the arches of the southeast of Stonehenge, the so-called ‘great trilithon’, with other parts of the structure aligned during sunrise.
“This is the time of year that people revered and was very important to them,” said archaeologist and English Heritage curator Win Scutt, in charge of the preservation of Stonehenge, to the BBC.
