Chamber is currently closed to visitors due to Covid-19
The phenomenon of the rising sun sending a shaft of light down the full length of the chamber at Newgrange on the shortest day of the year has been marvelled at for millennia.
It is seen as a reminder that the long dark nights of winter will gradually shorten, spring is not too far away and better times are on their way if we can only hold on.
This year that message of hope from our ancestors is more relevant than it has been for a long time. In these dark days of seemingly constant bad news we all need some brightness in our lives
It has been a tradition for many years for people to rise early on the Winter Solstice mornings to greet the rising sun at Newgrange on the shortest day of the year.
Sadly though, In line with the current Government Guidelines, the Newgrange chamber is currently closed to visitors, so the Winter Solstice will once again be live-streamed for all to view anywhere in the world.
In more recent years the OPW has run a worldwide raffle for tickets and the winners get to witness, from inside, the shaft of sunlight creeping down the length of the passage of the monument as the sun rises in the sky.
Of course winning a spot in the inside of the Newgrange chamber didn’t always guarantee a view of the spectacular event because, as often as not, the sunrise would be obscured by clouds.
The Winter Solstice is an astronomical phenomenon that marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter Solstice occurs on December 21 or 22, when the sun shines directly over the tropic of Capricorn.
At sunrise on the shortest day of the year, for 17 minutes, direct sunlight can enter the Newgrange monument, not through the doorway, but through the specially contrived small opening above the entrance known as the ‘roof box’, to illuminate the Chamber.
The OPW will be streaming live on their website on the 20th, 21st and 22nd December, so make sure to join on one of the mornings to view the spectacular phenomenon and learn some fascinating facts.
Details on the live-streaming event will be released over the coming weeks.
