A seemingly curious alliance of druids, pagans, hippies, locals and tourists gathered around a prehistoric stone circle on a plain in southern England to express their devotion to the sun, or to have some communal fun.
They stayed and celebrated at Stonehenge for the night and greeted the sunrise yesterday, which was the longest day in the northern hemisphere.
All over the UK, optimism would reign supreme as summer officially starts. It is no coincidence that the nearby Glastonbury Festival, one of the world’s biggest music events, opened its doors yesterday, too.
Photo: Reuters
Stonehenge and Glastonbury supposedly lie on ley lines — mystical energy connections across Britain.
For the thousands making the pilgrimage to Stonehenge, about 128km southwest of London, it is more than looking forward to Elton John at Glastonbury or a few ciders in the sun.
For druids, modern-day spiritualists linked to the ancient Celtic religious order, Stonehenge has a centuries-long importance, and they were there to perform dawn rituals around the solstice in their traditional white robes. It is effectively all about the cycle of life, of death and rebirth.
Photo: AFP
This year, the summer solstice at Stonehenge started at 7pm on Tuesday and ran through 8am yesterday.
For one night, worshipers were allowed to spend time inside the stone circle. Others chant or play their acoustic guitars. Alcohol is prohibited, as are sound systems. Bring a blanket, but no sleeping bags, please, and definitely, no climbing on the stones.
The rules have been tightened over the decades, certainly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Back in the less-restrained past, tens of thousands would travel by foot, car, bus or motorcycle to worship at the solar temple, or just have a bit of fun.
It is a symbol of British culture and history, and remains one of the UK’s biggest tourist draws, despite the seemingly permanent traffic jams on the nearby A303 highway, a popular route for motorists traveling to and from the southwest of England.
Stonehenge, one of the world’s most famous prehistoric monuments and a World Heritage Site, was built on the flat lands of Salisbury Plain in stages starting 5,000 years ago, with the unique stone circle erected in the late Neolithic period about 2,500 BC.
Some of the stones, the so-called bluestones, are known to have come from the Preseli Hills in southwest Wales, nearly 240km away, but the origins of others remain a mystery.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS