The Boreen Point community opened its winter solstice event to the public for the first time this year and hundreds descended on the Apollonian Hotel last Saturday night to join in the celebrations.
Apollonian Social Club president Angela Pinkstone said for the past four or five years the winter solstice event had been a highlight on the community calendar.
Each year community members made extraordinary lanterns which were carried through the streets of Boreen Point to the beach for a celebratory gathering.
This year with the beach having eroded, Apollonian Hotel publican Lou Paynter suggested they hold the event at the hotel.
For the first time, also, participants dressed in pagan theme for the occasion.
Community members at the event praised the hotel for stepping in to support the community, not only in this instance but for its ongoing support.
Event organiser Telena Rogers said workshops were held each year to create the lanterns with almost all of Boreen Point’s 360 residents participating in the event.
Telena, who hosts the workshops, said the lanterns had become prized items, were retained by residents and brought out for the festival each year.
The winter solstice occurred this year on Thursday 22 June at 12.57am when the earth’s southern pole reached its maximum tilt away from the sun. Although the solstice itself only lasts a moment, the occasion is generally marked by the day which has the shortest period of daylight and longest night of the year, and when the sun is at its lowest daily maximum elevation in the sky.
The winter solstice is a significant time of the year long celebrated in many cultures with festivals and rituals to mark the symbolic rebirth of the sun and the lengthening of days.
