Monday Night Fun Running

Winter Solstice – Wood Henge

Within 1 hour’s walk of our start location lay 5 Neolithic sites or henges. While the raised earth mounds often associated with henges have long since been removed, many sacred artefacts were still present within each of them. Legend has it that between 7:00pm and 8:00pm around the time of the Winter Solstice, light shines from an opening at the top of these ancient wooden poles. Visit the artefacts – observe the ancient symbols carved into them - and record the final symbol in each case.

Course Setter - Schon Hudson

Neolithic Score Course – bigger stones are worth more points

A henge is a pre-historic structure consisting of an area of ground surrounded by mounds of earth and usually containing stones, posts or other objects. It is believed that henges served ritual purposes and it is noted that many of them were aligned with the seasons or astronomical events. Stonehenge (on Salisbury Plain) - literally "circle of stones" is one of the better known henges - it was erected around 2200 BC.

Why do we care about the Winter Solstice?

The Winter Solstice marks the middle of Winter - a time of year when ancient societies had to make some tough decisions. Starvation during late-Winter was quite common and communities had to determine if they had enough food to last until Spring. A key decision for the future was if they had enough food to feed both themselves and their livestock - this was a double-edged sword...keep too many cattle and they eat useful food for little benefit...or slaughter cattle now and have less breeding stock in the next mating season (of course, in such an environment, male cattle would be the first to go).

As we discussed this during the evening, Jun was surprised that other countries celebrated this time - in Japan, his people celebrate Amaterasu - a festival to celebrate the reemergence of Amaterasu, the sun goddess in Japanese mythology, from a cave. Tricked out of the cave by noisy celebrations, the sun goddess emerges from the cave and brings sunlight back to the universe.

Sab noted that the Solstice (from Latin Sol - Sun and Sistere - to stand still) was celebrated as Yule or Yuletide in Germany and Scandinavian countries. He remembers the feasting and celebrations around that time from his youth. These celebrations are made even more enjoyable by the ready availability of the previous season's fermented beverages - as they come to term by mid-Winter and are ready to drink.

The Story so Far...

A mild evening - no sign of rain and certainly warmer than recent evenings. A total of 36 people attended - with one newcomer, Guy Eitzen...a friend of Ian Greenwood's. Several people arrived by bike and we delayed a couple of minutes to allow them to change. Recognising that it was a low-key evening we agreed that runners would get 60 minutes and walkers 65 - and we'd let the timing system decide if they were late back and how many penalties to apply. Sab and Mark had commitments immediately after the event and headed out early. As everybody left about 7:02, Adam and then Peter turned up and self-started at 7:05 and 7:08 respectively.

Schon had arranged the controls in 5 clusters of  5 controls - with each cluster containing one control in each row of the score-card. While she expected people to do an entire cluster before moving on, several folks decided that the 2-pointers were off to one side and were just not worth travelling out to. First back, with all controls, was Jun Okabe followed two minutes later by Bryan and then Bruce and Ian Davies.

- - - I didn't see much of the event - - - I had to get back in time to save the risotto (named after the famous risotto stone which contained the recipe used this evening in three languages - Egyptian Hieroglyphics, Demotic and Greek - and was the key to Champollion's successful decoding of Egyptian hieroglyphics in the early 1800's). If anyone noted anything amusing/publishable, I'd be most grateful.

About 24 people and one dog stayed for dinner. While the log fire was most welcome initially, it was soon noted that there was a convection current of people as they realised that they were done on that side and turned around to be equally cooked on all sides - or took refuge by moving further away from the fireplace. By this time, most of the food was piping hot and was laid on the table - risotto, lasagna, casserole, baked/roast potatoes, carrots, salads and garlic bread - all home made. Sincere thanks to the folks that brought the food and wine - my only recommendation for future occasions such as this is that we should serve the food in reasonable portions to ensure that there is food left for late-arrivals. If it turns out that there's plenty left, hungrier folks can always come back for second helpings.

There were *lots* of interesting discussions - perhaps stimulated by the fermented drinks that were consumed. All in all, an enjoyable evening - relatively easy to do with the kind support from many of those present. Perhaps we'll do it again next year?

Credits

• Course-Setting + Dessert - Schon

• Fire + Risotto - Geoff

• Lasagna - Judy

• Casserole - Lauris

• Salads - Jess, the Neale family (plus maybe another unidentified person)

• Wine + Good Company - everybody else

Neolithic DROC member searches for controls

Feedback

Ray and Dale - Couldn't find you on our way out last night. Thought those naked Pagan women must have carried you away. Thanks to you and Schon for the excellent hospitality on offer last night. It was a good night.
      {Reply - ........p.s. I was exhausted after the run and unable to put up much of a fight – but there were too many of them and I just took what was coming to me…
                          p.p.s. Discussions continued until 11:30 pm or thereabouts....finally threw Adam, Bryan and Peter Maloney out at this time}

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