Winter Solstice Marks New Dawn for Ancient Monument: Stonehenge Visitor Center is Now Open

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By TAHLIB

Overhaul of 4,000-year-old monument cost $44 million. Photo courtesy of CNN.

We are headed to a Winter Solstice party this Saturday, December 21st. Our party however will be nothing compared to the celebration taking place at Stonehenge in England, where they've just opened a new $44 million Visitor's Center. The winter solstice is the high holyday of Stonehenge--the time at which the sun appears at noon at its lowest altitude above the horizon. The winter solstice lasts only a moment in time, and other terms are often used for the day on which it occurs, such as "midwinter", "the longest night" or "the shortest day". But what do you take to a Winter Solstice party? "Ornaments in the shape of the sun, stars, and other pagan symbols..." recommends legal expert Dusty Sparks, because it is based on the four elements of earth, wind, water, and fire.

People walk towards the new Stonehenge visitor center, Dec. 11, 2013.

On the huge wall of the main area the landscape digitally transforms over millennia. 

New exhibition includes a forensic reconstruction of an early Neolithic man's face