The winter solstice may be the the shortest day and longest night of the year, but it was surprisingly sunny today – which was fitting.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The ancient Celts celebrated the solstice as the time when the days started to get longer again.
Their Celtic descendants held a ceremony at the Australian Standing Stones to observe solar noon, when the sun was at its highest point in the sky.
Mayor Cr Steve Toms, who is also chief guardian of the Stones, and Australian Standing Stones Management Board chair Judi Toms, presided.
READ ALSO:
The ceremony began at 11.30, with a piper. Cr Toms then gave a talk about how the stones measure solar noon – what he called the science lesson of the day.
Ground-level plaques, installed for the summer solstice in December, tracked the longest shadow of the day, cast by the sun at its height.
Cr Toms compared the stone plaque to a clock, with the minute hand gradually ticking away.
“There are sundials around the world, but I don’t know of any similar scheme elsewhere in the world,” he said. “I'm claiming this as unique!”
Although the plaques are a straight line, they map the Earth’s orbit around the sun.
On the longest day, the summer solstice, the sun casts a shadow close to the stone; on the shortest day, today, the shadow stretches far from the stone.
“To see a physical representation of the changing day lengths from summer to winter over a six-month period is just amazing,” Mrs Toms said. “Stone circles were a working calendar for the ancient Celts.”
At solar noon, 11.55 am, the point of the winter solstice plaque, 4 metres from the stone, aligned with the sun’s shadow.
“This is the first time in history the sun and that top plaque have aligned,” Cr Toms said.
The event was attended by council general manager Hein Basson, Cr Colin Price, Caledonian and Celtic society chair Garek Fysh, and Glen Innes tartan co-designer Peter Bruce.
In other years, the ceremony took place at dawn, when the rising sun’s rays hit the Australis stone for all Celts.
This was the first time the winter solstice ceremony was held at noon – much to the relief of the crowd, who didn’t have to rug up against a cold Glen Innes morning.