Winter solstice celebration at Stonehenge draws thousands of costumed revelers
Thousands of people cheered and danced around Stonehenge on Sunday, the winter solstice, as the sun rose over the prehistoric stone circle.
The crowd, many in costume, gathered before dawn and waited patiently in the dark and cold southwest of England.
While some sang and played drums, others took time to contemplate among the huge stone pillars.
Many make pilgrimages to the stone circle every summer and winter and consider it a spiritual experience.
Erected between 5,000 and 3,500 years ago, the ancient monument was built according to the movement of the sun at the solstices, which were important dates in the calendar for ancient farmers.
Sunday is the shortest day of the year north of the equator, where the solstice marks the beginning of astronomical winter.
The situation is exactly the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where the longest day of the year occurs and summer begins.
The winter solstice is when the sun makes its shortest, lowest arc, but many celebrate it as a time of renewal because after Sunday the sun begins to rise again and the days grow a little longer each day until the end of June.
