Tuesday, December 24, 2019
Celebrating the Solstice
After the Winter Solstice which we passed through on the weekend, the days are getting longer - a huge reason to celebrate, and something I watch for every year. Every Winter Solstice I think of the Stone Age people who built the great stone monuments on Orkney, off northern Scotland, monuments which we had the chance to visit in 2011. They too were aware of the significance of this celestial event and celebrated.
Maeshowe, an enormous burial mound near the Ness of Brodgar, makes the most explicit reference to the Winter Solstice.
Here you enter the mound crouched down through a tunnel just over 3 feet high and once inside find yourself in an open room surrounded by towering walls of sandstone blocks. They say these blocks are fitted together so tightly that you can't even slip a knife between them - this in an era 5000 years ago, long before metal was in use. Just think about that for a moment. That's earlier than Stonehenge and earlier than the Egyptian pyramids!
Not only did they know how to build monumental structures out of stone, they had incredible astronomical knowledge, for this burial mound is built such that on the Winter Solstice the setting sun's rays shine straight through the entrance tunnel onto the back wall. How did they figure that out? It makes me wonder what other sort of knowledge they had, and if perhaps we've lost some of it along the way! In any case I find it always humbles me. Enjoy our longer days.
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Yay for longer days! Thank you for the story and pictures. It is incredible what knowledge was common back in those days and like you say, has probably been lost.
ReplyDeleteWhen they lived without the technology we have today, they were engineers and craftsmen and women in a wonderful and huge way. I think of my Dad in the hay making days, no long term weather forecast back then, but he and our neighbours always managed to get it cut and turned and baled without any rain. Season's Greetings to you and Mrs F.G. we are already in the 25th Day of December, and all is quiet.
ReplyDeleteI would love to explore places like this, most of the ancestry comes from various parts of Scotland. have a good Christmas btw :-)
ReplyDeleteThese last few sunny days have really helped emphasize the Solstice.
ReplyDeleteYes, much knowledge known by the Ancients has been lost, but we still live in a wonderful world and have to discover it all over again, it seems. Best wishes for the holiday season and the brand new year to come! :-)
ReplyDeleteWe're still trying to figure out things the ancients did.
ReplyDeleteA merry Christmas to you.
Too much Technology has cause people to forget how to interpret the Weather the way the Aboriginals did.
ReplyDeleteWishing you and Mrs FG a Safe and Merry Christmas.
It's about time.
Enjoy these lengthening days, spring is on its way even thought the worst of the winter is yet to come. Looking and learning about the winter solstice's significance to the ancient ones (and to us today) makes one wonder just how long ago it was recognized and became significant in peoples' lives.
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