Pagans celebrate Winter Solstice at Stonehenge on the wrong day...

Monsters & Critics ^ | Dec 22, 2006 | UPI

[DogByte6RER]

Religion News

Solstice rite held early at Stonehenge

Dec 22, 2006

LONDON, England (UPI) -- Around 60 people turned up to celebrate the Winter Solstice at Stonehenge Thursday - on the wrong day. After negotiating with site managers, the crowd performed traditional solstice activities and left peacefully.

One reveller, who wished to remain anonymous, said: 'We formed a ring and held hands, and touched the stones. The man with the green cloak was there. But there were an awful lot of red faces,' she said.

The Pagan Winter Solstice celebration is one of the oldest winter celebrations in the world. Because the Summer Solstice occurs on June 21, they assume the Winter Solstice occurs Dec. 21, but it actually occurs Friday at 0022 GMT. Another crowd is expected at Stonehenge Friday morning.

Stonehenge is currently competing against other iconic structures from the Statue of Liberty to the Great Wall of China, in a global poll for the New Seven Wonders of the World. The poll is organized by the Swiss-based New7Wonders and the winners will be announced in July 2007.

Last year, permission was refused for a new visitor centre at Stonehenge but English Heritage plans to appeal the decision. It also said the much-needed improvements were now subject to a government review as a result of cost increases.

[DogByte6RER]

I remember seeing something similar to this in a movie when I was a kid...

[tet68]

I see you got off on that LSD suppository I sold you.

Not bad for $50 eh?

Still got one left if you're interested.

[b4its2late]

Dumb assses!

[Tribune7]

In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids. No one knows who they were or what they were doing...

[Tribune7]

Can I raise a practical question at this point? Are we gonna do "Stonehenge" tomorrow?
--Derek Smalls

[Gorzaloon]

No self-respecting pagan of old would have overlooked the correct dates of a solstice or equinox, for any reason.

No, they would have used Stonehenge for its original purpose...an analog computer for calculating solstices and equinoxes.

I suppose in some jungle somewhere, a witch doctor is still trying to figure out what to do with a lost-and-found HP35. In like manner, modern primitives are having the same problems with REALLY old models on non-solstices.

[stylecouncilor]

ping

[Oberon]

This anecdote demonstrates just how superficial the "faith" of these self-styled pagans really is.

No self-respecting pagan of old would have overlooked the correct dates of a solstice or equinox, for any reason.

They seemed to have omitted the sacrifice, too. What's a solstice without blood?

[Oberon]

In ancient times, hundreds of years before the dawn of history, an ancient race of people... the Druids.

They don't LOOK Druish...

[Robert A Cook PE]

Nope.

Weren't the DRuids - who were early Middle Ages at best, at minimum a hoped-for copy of what certain "Celts" THOUGHT were old pre-Roman pagan activities. But nobody knows exactly what they throught they were copying ...

Stonehenge itself is a series of very old (2100 - 2500 BC stone monuments built (and rebuilt!) over top one another over an original wooden circle.

The stones (gaps, notches, and top-of-stones - depending on where you're measuring) line up with the moon-sun rising points for that latitude at their setting times at mid-winter, the equinoxs (mid-March, mid-Sept, and mid-summer. Fairly accurate, once corrected for 4000-off years of precession that misaligns the ORGINAL setting lines.

So, what their "worshiping" now is meaningless (assuming it ever was meaningful, that is!) since "nothing" is "on" the original lines anymore.

[browngreengold]

"D'Oh!!"

[Robert A Cook PE]

Worked fairly well!

Did you realize the inner circle of holes of the "analog computer" works out as a counter for the number of years between eclipses? We don't know what they really did, but if a stone is moved from hole to hole, the "count" for the number of holes gives the time to the next eclipse.

Means you need somebody to move stones "religiously" to keep the count up - since it's a long cycle, but that just shows it would be a stable culture whose priest class predicts what they'll need the 17 years, the next 17 after that, etc.

[dfwgator]

Thank you. 24 posts on a Stonehedge thread before the first Spinal Tap reference. Tsk tsk tsk.

[Tribune7]

:-)

[KoRn]

"What would a motorcycle gang be doing at Stonehenge anyway?"

LOL! We rode up behind one of those filthy bastards on the highway this past summer. My wife wanted to 'accidentally' run him over with our SUV a few times. I told her to go ahead, but for whatever reason, she didn't.

[Tribune7]

Not just Stonehenge, but a magnificent Stonehenge screw-up by hippy-dippy flakes.

What could be more appropriate?

[ushr435]

Possibly related to the little boy in the red poof-ball hat?

[metalcor]

Pagans just aren't what they used to be....

[discostu]

And I'm sure the Bluemen Group has to fit in here somewhere.

[PacesPaines]

Who is that? Bea Arthur?