Thousands of people, including pagans, druids and dancers, have gathered at the ancient Stonehenge monument for the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year.

During the sunrise at 8:09 a.m. there was a lot of drumming, chanting and singing.

However, there was no real sun in Wiltshire as there was low cloud over the area.

There will be less than eight hours of daylight on Saturday, but after that the days will get longer until the summer solstice in June.

The summer and winter solstices are the only occasions when visitors can access the Stonehenge stones directly.

The stone circle, which includes giant columns, was built about 5,000 years ago by a sun-worshipping Neolithic culture.

However, its full purpose is still debated.

Recently it has been speculated that the site may have had both political and spiritual significance.

The effort involved in transporting the stones hundreds of kilometers using only primitive tools suggests this they had a unifying purpose.

It was also discovered that the stone lying flat in the middle of the monument, the so-called “altar stone”, originally comes from Scotlandnot Wales, as originally thought.

The smaller stones – bluestones – that form the inner horseshoe and outer circle are known to have been quarried in the Preseli Hills of west Wales.

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Stonehenge is built on the line of sunrise in midsummer and sunset in winter and is believed to have celebrated solstices there for thousands of years.

The winter solstice has also been observed in many different parts of the world.

In Japan, there is a tradition of taking a yuzu bath infused with yuzu citrus, which, according to a myth, protects against a cold for a year.

And in Palma on the Spanish island of Mallorca, people gathered to watch the sunrise – against the spectacular backdrop of the city’s cathedral.