It has been a quite profound experience to welcome the Sun Rays, after the longest night, hand by hand with hundreds of people gathered around the Newgrange Monument. The night prior to this was filled with heart-connecting activities: Biodanza, Drumming Circle, Dinner and Group Meditation. I fell asleep staring at the amazingly ornamented victorian ceiling (Townley Hall is a listed building), listening to the wood logs crackling in the fireplace ahead of me and it was like time-travel magic!
Magic did not end with this event – I came back home, literally dropped my bags and run towards Grangegorman DIT to photograph the wonderful parade ending its route at Smithfield Square.
The fire, carried through the streets of Dublin (lit – what a coincidence – at Newgrange Monument) was filled with little wooden sticks thrown there to make the Winter Solstice dreams come true.
And if you think that photographers on duty do not use this opportunity – you are very wrong. 🙂
More photos in my facebook photo gallery HERE.
“The winter solstice (or hibernal solstice), also known as midwinter, occurs when one of the Earth’s poles has its maximum tilt away from the Sun. It happens twice yearly, once in each hemisphere (Northern and Southern). For that hemisphere, the winter solstice is the day with the shortest period of daylight and the longest night of the year, when the sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky.”
Wikipedia