Some had turned up in flowing robes while others were wearing lovingly-crafted winter solstice wreaths decorated with berries and ivy.
The problem for the assorted pagans, druids and pantheists who arrived at Stonehenge yesterday morning to celebrate the winter solstice was that they had arrived a day early.
Around 60 people had gathered at the stone circle, cloaked in frost and fog, to celebrate what they believed was the winter solstice. The staff who guard the precious monument in Wiltshire explained they were 24 hours early.
However, they allowed the disappointed, and in some cases embarrassed, celebrants on to the site anyway to take part in rather muted ceremonies.
The winter solstice tends to be more muted than its summer equivalent anyway. Almost 20,000 people showed up this summer whereas last year 1,500 came to the winter version.
As it always does, English Heritage had discussions with druid and pagan groups to decide when the winter solstice should be celebrated.
Many people think it always falls on December 21. However, the solstice varies and the time when it ought to be celebrated is open to different interpretations.
The astronomical moment of the solstice was actually at 22 minutes past midnight today - and so English Heritage and many pagans believed the solstice celebration ought to have been celebrated at sunrise this morning. They had asked celebrants to arrive at 7.45am today.
The head of the Druid Network, Emma Restall Orr (also known as Bobcat), said: "Pagans are not entirely scientific. They are more guided by nature."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1977361,00.html
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