Thousands gather at Stonehenge to celebrate the winter solstice
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Dawn of shortest day of year welcomed with drumming, chanting and singing at neolithic monument in Wiltshire. Thousands of people greeted the dawn with cheers and applause at Stonehenge on Saturday as they marked the winter solstice. Those who observed the spectacle at the neolithic monument in Wiltshire encountered a windy morning as they marked the shortest day of the year.
![[People at Stonehenge]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/7b61ed2fbbec4c1b4e9aefce9b870f1deccbad94/0_366_8256_4954/master/8256.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
At sunrise at 8.09am, there was a flurry of drumming, chanting and singing. There were less than eight hours of daylight on Saturday but the days now get longer until the summer solstice on 21 June. Stonehenge was built on the alignment of the midsummer sunrise and the midwinter sunset. It is believed that solstices have been celebrated there for thousands of years.
Chris Smith, 31, who had come to Stonehenge for the winter solstice for the first time, said he was there because of the “spiritual draw of the area”. The civil servant said: “This is all about renewal, rebirth, we’re entering into the new year, and it’s also a good time to acknowledge what’s taking place in the year that’s been.
“For me, I’ve gone through a bit of a tumultuous year, there’s been lots that has taken place for me in the past 24 months, and this is an opportunity to consolidate everything that has taken place this year and bury that in the past and be able to move forward then into this next new year.”.
