Thousands gather at Stonehenge for Winter Solstice
It marks the shortest day and longest night of the year
Thousands of people have marked Winter Solstice at Stonehenge this morning (21/12).
The event celebrates the shortest day and longest night of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
The sunrise was greeted with cheering, dancing and music beneath a cloudy sky, welcoming a chilly but dry morning.
"I'd be a fool to miss it"
Solstice events bring together people from a variety of backgrounds and from all over the world.
We spoke to Caroline, who is from Brooklyn, New York, and decided to take the opportunity while in the UK for work to be part of the celebrations.
"I'm a bit of a history buff and I also consider the solstice to be a really interesting time, regardless of your cultural background," she said.
"If you live in the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice is, as my dad likes to say, the time when the sun begins to tilt back toward baseball season. So I thought, it would be significant. I'd be a fool to miss it."
She added that there is nothing quite like the Solstice at Stonehenge, saying it has deep rooted meaning for humanity.
"I think it's meaningful for us as a species, but especially for people in the Northern Hemisphere to look at our predecessors and think about how they were already keeping track of these things."
Organisers delight in successful Solstice
Stonehenge is managed by English Heritage and Curator for the ancient monument, Win Scutt, said the event has gone very smoothly.
He told us he's proud of how it brings people together: "It's brilliant, there's just such a fantastic atmosphere here, so many different people, different kinds of people as well, many pagans, druids, all sorts of people.
"We at English Heritage are just delighted to welcome so many people and so many different people."
Win added that Stonehenge has a draw that many other sites struggled to match.
"It's got that power, hasn't it, this incredible sight, that it draws people from all different walks of life.
"There's something about Stonehenge that appeals to people in so many different ways and it's lovely to share that."