Around 8,500 people gathered this Sunday at the megalithic monument of Stonehenge, in southwest England, to celebrate the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Just before 08:00 GMT, the sky began to clear, and the sun made its official appearance nine minutes later to the cheers of the crowd—about 8,500, according to the BBC—who celebrated the arrival of winter in pagan attire to the sound of ancestral chants and dances. Although the attendance was high, it was far below the summer solstice gathering on June 21st, which was attended by around 25,000 people, despite the heatwave the UK was experiencing at the time. The circular megalithic monument, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, was built around 2500 BC, and its 93 visible stones are strategically placed to align with the sun's movements. Therefore, during the solstices, the two annual moments (summer and winter) when the sun is at its greatest distance from the equator, a unique light phenomenon is generated at Stonehenge. During the winter solstice, like this one on December 21st, the sun is at its lowest point in the sky and can be seen through the southeast arches 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.
