So the shortest day came, and the year diedAnd everywhere down the centuries of thesnow-white worldCame people singing, dancing,To drive the dark away.
Susan Cooper, ‘The Shortest Day’
They came in darkness, a motley crowd some 4,500 strong, to windswept Salisbury Plain – young and old, punk, pagan, pilgrim, Druid, New Ager, eco-warrior, wiccan, shaman, sightseer… Some wore bobble hats, some antlers or mistletoe crowns. In a mood of anticipation, they waited as the sky turned from ink to powder blue to grey, and out of the shadows loomed the enigmatic stone colossi that exert such a pull on the imagination.
So, at 8.04am at Stonehenge, began 21 December 2024, the shortest day, the winter solstice, the pagans’ Yule. Drummers drummed, a hobby horse pranced, Morris men capered, yogis performed…