UK: Sun-worshippers swamp Stonehenge for summer solstice

Thousands of neo-druids, hippies, and casual sun-worshippers gathered at the Avebury stone circle near the prehistoric Stonehenge centre in Wiltshire, Saturday, to see in the summer solstice. Participants gathered in and around the ancient rocks, used on and off as Britain’s de facto site to greet the solstice for an estimated five millennia, many wearing druid and pagan capes, clothing, and accessories. An estimated 36,000 people whooped and chanted as the sun rose at around 04:52 AM local time on the longest day of the year in Britain. The summer solstice is celebrated by thousands of pagans around the world, with Stonehenge believed to have functioned as a site for the ritual over 4,000 years ago. However, the area has only come back into use for pagan rituals since the beginning of the 20th Century, with paganism having become one of Europe’s fastest growing religion in the last 30 years.