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Just watched solstice sunrise at Newgrange, probably for the first and last time (but worth trying tomorrow and Tuesday morning, 8.45 am GMT):
https://www.gov.ie/en/news/eea6b-winter-solstice-at-newgrange-2020/?referrer=http://www.gov.ie/newgrange/#
https://www.gov.ie/en/news/eea6b-winter-solstice-at-newgrange-2020/?referrer=http://www.gov.ie/newgrange/#
There's an official lottery every year to take part in the physical event. Only a few ppl can fit in. It happens 3 days a year - and only if you get a clear morning, on December, in Ireland.
However it was handled - if anyone went in at all - seeing it was very rare.
However it was handled - if anyone went in at all - seeing it was very rare.
There's good commentary on the livestream and a wealth of research on Newgrange out there.
Just a couple of thoughts from the perspective of organising rituals and outdoors events over the years...
Just a couple of thoughts from the perspective of organising rituals and outdoors events over the years...
What an extraordinary risk to take - if you were organising the ritual - knowing the chances are better than even that the sun will be covered in clouds and ppl will be disappointed. How would you handle that?
Ofc if nobody went in - if it was just for the dead - that wouldn't be a problem. Or you cd imagine the same congregation over 3 dawns.
Or maybe the big numbers are outside, w just a few inside (even an initiation ritual which wd be special anyway, even w/o the light?)
Whatever you did, you'd need to think how you'd handle whether the light came in or not, and set things up accordingly.
Whatever you did, you'd need to think how you'd handle whether the light came in or not, and set things up accordingly.
One suggestion is that only one or two people went in, on everyone else's behalf.
If there was any ritual element inside, it cd only involve small numbers, a tiny fraction of the communities that contributed to building it (in terms of labour power and where some of the stone came from).
You can fit at most a few dozen ppl inside the chamber - and that's if all you're doing is standing and maybe singing or chanting.
Any movement and you have to start cutting that down significantly. For some Buddhist rituals you "just" make a path in the middle where ppl can bow and offer incense etc. - that wd cut possible nos in Newgrange by at least 1/3.
So, you cd give many meanings to the event over the years - but you're very constrained in what you can do ritually and it takes a good MC.
The person organising the timings (if anything has to coincide w sunrise or the light reaching the chamber) needs a lot of experience of what to watch for on that particular horizon - you couldn't just drop in and get it right first time.
On the upside, the location is *easy* by comparison w so many megalithic monuments.
Some of the megalithic cemeteries are high enough up on wet hillsides that a funeral ceremony might well carry off others of the deceased's contemporaries if weather was bad - chances are the main ritual was lower down, somewhere you could keep ppl warm if not always dry.
Newgrange is much lower down and you can easily imagine visitors camping around here, with fires etc., even for 3 days. And significant numbers could live w/in easy walking distance - all year round or just for the duration.
Even a late sunrise like this (the sun clears the horizon at Newgrange about an hour after dawn, ie after it rises over the sea) can still be pretty damn cold in late December - especially after a clear night when you might see the sun.
You do get used to this - ppl are still swimming in the sea this time of year, and it doesn't take long to acclimatise if you're camping - but factor in children, old ppl, sick and disabled ppl (even if not everyone came) and you do need to think about cold and / or rain.
Outside the monument where most ppl must have been - was it a short event? Was a lot of dancing, singing, chanting involved to keep ppl warm? Were there fires, or hot drinks?
Bringing a large group onto a (low) Irish hillside at dawn in December is by no means impossible, but it takes thought and preparation, and the ritual side has to be structured around whatever you decide.
