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What a wonderful world!
July 4, 2007
The Stonehenge, England
Druids conducted a Samhain (harvest) blessing ceremony at the Stonehenge, the 5,000-year-old site of circularly-placed stones in Wiltshire, southern England, late last year to mark Bernard Weber's visit. Weber visited each of the 21 sites shortlisted as one of the seven wonders. Druids once worshipped different aspects of nature like stars, the moon and the sun; new Druids are called ne-Druids.
Some facts you probably did not know:
The name Stonehenge comes from the Old English words for hinge and stone.
The monument was erected probably around 3,200 BC.
The Stonehenge is mentioned in the tales about King Arthur penned around 1100 AD. It is said the stones of the Stonehenge came from Africa and had healing powers.
It was bought as a gift by Cecil Chubb, a local racehorse owner and cattle breeder, for his wife for 6,600 pounds in 1915. They donated the Stonehenge to England on the conditions that locals could visit the monument free; outsiders be not charged not more than a shilling; and the entry fees would be donated to the Red Cross all through World War I. Chubb would stir in his grave if he knew that visitors are now charged 6.30 pounds although locals can still enter free.
The arrangement of the stones is being upset by the volume of traffic passing that way on a highway between Amesbury and Winterbourne Stoke. Plans are on to construct a tunnel for the highway.
The Druids celebrate the summer solstice at the Stonehenge and do so today too, but in a more controlled manner. Earlier, they are said to have held wild parties and scrambled all over the stones disturbing them.
Image: Druids perform a ceremony at the Stonehenge, October 17, 2006. Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images
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