[imagesource:wikicommons]

Today is June Solstice, and if you are a druid, pagan, or tourist, Stonehenge is the place to be as the sun marks the shortest night and longest day of the year, or longest night and shortest day, if you’re down here in the Southern Hemisphere.

The solstice isn’t a whole day. Instead, it’s a moment when the sun is farthest from you, and that moment has been celebrated for longer than hippies have worn tie-dye.

Ancient cultures already knew that the sun’s path across the sky, the length of daylight, and the location of the sunrise and sunset all shifted in a regular way throughout the year. This ancient astronomy led to them building monuments such as the ones at Stonehenge in England and at Machu Picchu in Peru to follow the sun’s yearly progress.

Today, we know that the solstice is caused by Earth’s tilt on its axis and by its orbital motion around the sun. What this means to the non-science peeps among us, is that today is the real start of winter.

This may come as a surprise after the recent cold weather that seems to have been ongoing for months now, but although we regard the 1st of June as the beginning of winter, it actually only kicks off today, 21 June.

And because they are much more ‘in tune’ with nature than most folks, costumed witches and wizards will gather around Stonehenge today to herald the new axial tilt.

Stonehenge, approximately 128km (80 miles) southwest of London has been the go-to place for many, and this year saw record numbers greet the sunrise on Wednesday, which will be the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere.

It’s an engineering feat that was constructed almost 5 000 years ago, and aligns perfectly with the solstice, leading to its ‘magical’ reputation.

We may never comprehend the full significance of Stonehenge. But we do know that knowledge of this sort wasn’t limited to just one part of the world. Around the same time, Stonehenge was being constructed in England, the great pyramids and the Sphinx was built in Egypt.

If you stood at the Sphinx on the summer solstice and gazed toward the two pyramids, you’d see the sun set exactly between them.

According to the English Heritage, a charity that manages hundreds of historic sites, Stonehenge is the most generally accepted ‘prehistoric temple aligned with the movements of the sun’. Ground zero to pray to the celestial noodle in other words.

For those of you who can’t be there today, check out this neat 3D view of the sacred circle. Winter only just arrived today so, brace yourselves people.

source:earthsky&aljazeera]