Druids, Wiccans and Pagans are among hundreds of people travelling to Stonehenge this morning to witness the sunrise on the shortest day of the year.
Many people dressed in medieval clothing to celebrate the solstice, which marks the latest dawn and the point when the sun is at its lowest point in the sky.
Some were even at Stonehenge in time for the 8.04am sunrise.
The winter solstice is the annual event which marks the point where the North Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. As a result of the north of Earth leaning away from the Sun, Tuesday will see the fewest hours of sunlight in one day.
Obviously, the same event leads to the southern hemisphere experiencing their longest days at the height of summer.
The exact moment of this year’s solstice will took place at 4.49am GMT.
Here’s a slider which compares winter solstice this year to five years ago…
A spokesman for Historic England said people travel to Stonehenge on the winter solstice because of the monument’s alignment with the sun on the winter solstice.
Adding that it is believed the solstice was of huge importance to Stonehenge’s prehistoric users, dating back to the monument’s creation an estimated 4,000 years ago.
Both summer and winter solstice are a pretty big deal in the Pagan calendar.
While Wiccans know the winter solstice as Yule, the rebirth of the sun god – who rises again to thaw the frosty earth.
The sun sets between the trilithon at the site, which is where two vertical pillars stand next to each other, supporting a horizontal stone on top.
‘One of the most important and well-known features of Stonehenge is its alignment on the midwinter sunset-midsummer sunrise solstitial axis,’ the spokesman said.
‘The midwinter sun sets between the two upright stones of the great trilithon.
‘We do not know which solstice was more important to the users of Stonehenge, but several pieces of evidence suggest that midwinter was very important.’
Paganism is described as a group of religions and spiritual traditions based on a worship of nature and the planet.
Most Pagans, believe in the divine character of the natural world. Paganism is often described as an Earth religion.
Druidism is a spiritual practise with no sacred text (such as the Bible or Koran), meaning that Druid’s beliefs often differ from person to person.
Wiccans is a complex faith of varying beliefs, but Wiccans often follow the Law of Threefold Return or The Rule of Three, which preaches: ‘Whatever you do, for good or ill, will come back upon three times over’.
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