Winter Solstice
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In the northern hemisphere, the Winter solstice is day of the year when the sun is farthest south. The winter solstice marks the first day of the season of winter and the shortest day of the year, respectively, in the sense that the length of time elapsed between sunrise (08:30) and sunset (16:30) on this day is a minimum for the year. Of course, daylight saving time means that the first Sunday in April has 23 hours and the last Sunday in October has 25 hours, but these human meddlings with the calendar and do not correspond to the actual number of daylight hours.
Newgrange, a beautiful megalithic site in Ireland. This huge circular stone structure is estimated to be 5,000 years old, older by centuries than Stonehenge, older than the Egyptian pyramids! It was built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at dawn on winter solstice.
The light illuminates a stone basin below intricate carvings -- spirals, eye shapes, solar discs. Although not much is known about how Newgrange was used by its builders, marking the solstice was obviously of tremendous spiritual import to them.
Newgrange, a beautiful megalithic site in Ireland. This huge circular stone structure is estimated to be 5,000 years old, older by centuries than Stonehenge, older than the Egyptian pyramids! It was built to receive a shaft of sunlight deep into its central chamber at dawn on winter solstice.The light illuminates a stone basin below intricate carvings -- spirals, eye shapes, solar discs. Although not much is known about how Newgrange was used by its builders, marking the solstice was obviously of tremendous spiritual import to them.
Today's weather is not helping. It was cloudy, therefore, tourists have to wait for another year to see the light go into the secret chamber if they start to queue up now. I haven't been to Newgrange yet, I'll wait for my parents and kids to go toghter.
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