LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Winter Solstice: Sun King
built 641 days ago
During the Winter Solstice, sunlight streams through the roof of this tomb.It travels down a long passageway, and illuminates an inner chamber. Clear skies are expected tomorrow, so those who travel to this ancient Irish monument have a chance to see the solstice spectacle in all its glory.
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The Winter Solstice represents the rebirth of the sun, which is a particularly important turning point. The night of Solstice is the longest night of the year. Darkness triumphs; and yet, gives way and changes into light.
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INCA RELIGION: The ancient Incas celebrated a festival if Inti Raymi at the time of the Winter Solstice. It celebrates "[T]he Festival of the Sun where the god of the Sun, Wiracocha, is honored." 16 Ceremonies were banned by the Roman Catholic conquistadores in the 16th century as part of their forced conversions of the Inca people to Christianity. A local group of Quecia Indians in Cusco, Peru revived the festival about 1950. It is now a major festival which begins in Cusco and proceeds to an ancient amphitheater a few miles away.
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Figure 6h-8: This animation displays the geometric relationship that occurs between the Earth and the Sun during the [W]inter solstice. The yellow line on the Earth represents the equator. The green lines are the Tropic of Cancer and Capricorn. The Arctic and Antarctic Circles are shown with red lines. In the animation, the South Pole is tilted 23.5° toward the Sun. This condition causes the Sun's rays to be most intense at the Tropic of Capricorn (23.5° South).
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The passage and chamber of Newgrange are illuminated by the winter solstice sunrise. A shaft of sunlight shines through the roof box over the entrance and penetrates the passage to light up the chamber. The dramatic event lasts for 17 minutes at dawn from the 19th to the 23rd of December. The light illuminates a stone basin below intricate carvings -- spirals, eye shapes, solar discs. Although not much is known about how Newgrange was used by its builders, marking the solstice was obviously of tremendous spiritual importance to them.
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No one's really sure how long ago humans recognized the winter solstice and began heralding it as a turning point -- the day that marks the return of the sun. One delightful little book written in 1948, 4,000 Years of Christmas, puts its theory right up in the title. The Mesopotamians were first, it claims, with a 12-day festival of renewal, designed to help the god Marduk tame the monsters of chaos for one more year.
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