Stonehenge crowds gather to celebrate winter solstice
More than 3,500 people watched the sunrise at 08:09 GMT
Thousands of people have gathered to mark the winter solstice at Stonehenge in Wiltshire.
English Heritage said more than 3,500 people watched the sunrise at 08:09 GMT and described the event as "a success".
Druids and pagans are among those who mark the solstice at Stonehenge on the shortest day each year in the northern hemisphere.
Wiltshire Police said it was more difficult to accommodate people during the winter due to "limited parking".
Insp Christian Laynge said: "We try our best to plan for this but we can't use the local fields like we do for the summer solstice where we get 20,000 to 30,000 people turning up.
Winter solstice Stonehenge 2013 English Heritage said Stonehenge was filled with "drumming and chanting"
"We're really limited here because we can't use local fields for parking and we can't use anywhere else, so once we're up to 5,000 people, that's it, we have to close it off."
Kate Davies, who manages Stonehenge for English Heritage, said: "We were delighted to welcome over 3,500 people to Stonehenge to celebrate winter solstice.
"The wind and the rain did not dampen the celebration. And the ancient stone circle was filled with the sound of song, drumming and chanting.
"We are grateful to everyone who helped to make this winter solstice a success and we look forward to seeing people at the summer solstice next year."
Claire, a pagan from Bristol, attended the event with her seven-year-old daughter. She said: "We arrived at 5.30am - it's a wonderful place. You don't have to be pagan to enjoy it - even the weather won't put you off."
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pagan (n.)
late 14c., from Late Latin paganus "pagan," in classical Latin "villager, rustic; civilian, non-combatant" noun use of adjective meaning "of the country, of a village," from pagus "country people; province, rural district," originally "district limited by markers," thus related to pangere "to fix, fasten," from PIE root *pag- "to fix" (see pact). As an adjective from early 15c.
Religious sense is often said to derive from conservative rural adherence to the old gods after the Christianization of Roman towns and cities; but the word in this sense predates that period in Church history, and it is more likely derived from the use of paganus in Roman military jargon for "civilian, incompetent soldier," which Christians (Tertullian, c.202; Augustine) picked up with the military imagery of the early Church (e.g. milites "soldier of Christ," etc.). Applied to modern pantheists and nature-worshippers from 1908.
www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=pagan
