An absolute disgrace... trash all over Stonehenge on Midsummer

[Jainarayan]

Stonehenge left littered with rubbish after 36,500 revellers descend on ancient site for summer solstice | Daily Mail Online

This is an absolute disgrace and inexcusably disrespectful. The article mentions a carnival atmosphere. I wonder how many of these 36,500 attendees even knew what the event was about.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Stonehenge left littered with rubbish after 36,500 revellers descend on ancient site for summer solstice | Daily Mail Online

This is an absolute disgrace and inexcusably disrespectful. The article mentions a carnival atmosphere. I wonder how many of these 36,500 attendees even knew what the event was about.

for most of the moderns, it was an excuse to party--ANYTHING their reason for a celebration, and that usually means trashing a place and not cleaning up afterwards. One of the reasons I stopped partying with friends in HS.

 

[Theweirdtophat]

It's always a disgrace to see litter everywhere, in forests, sites like this ect. Have they ever heard of a trashcan? How is this possible? Just like how is it possible for many people to have bad teeth when toothpaste is inexpensive. It's just insane.

But it's ok. Because no matter what you trash, there will always be someone else to clean up your mess. That's the mind set of so many nowadays.

 

[Jainarayan]

From the photos it looked like a mostly younger people. So much for caring about the planet.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

It's ludicrous that people wouldn't (presumably) trash their own home, but yet they have no issues with trashing the home we all share.

 

[BSM1]

Stonehenge left littered with rubbish after 36,500 revellers descend on ancient site for summer solstice | Daily Mail Online

This is an absolute disgrace and inexcusably disrespectful. The article mentions a carnival atmosphere. I wonder how many of these 36,500 attendees even knew what the event was about.

They should have sacrificed a couple of loud ones; that would have sent a message.

 

[Riverwolf]

By the Gods... I thought Stonehenge was protected ground! Isn't Salisbury Field owned by the English military? What was security doing that whole time? Joining in on the celebrations??

I don't mind having festival stuff like concession stands or games during the celebrations, but COME ON! Drawing on the Stones is bad, but throwing garbage everywhere is a-okay...

I intend to attend one of Stonehenge's Solstice celebrations (whether Winter or Summer depends on which is closer during the time I get to England), and if this has any chance of happening again, I'm TOTALLY organizing a post-Solstice cleanup thing (if the authorities allow it, of course). The biggest gut-kick in cleaning up the environment is that there's no justice in it; we have to clean up everyone else's trash.

Serves as a good microcosm for the whole thing, really.

 

[Riverwolf]

...as does the article's small focus on the trash at the beginning, before spending the majority of the space talking about how great the celebrations were.

 

[Jainarayan]

The irony is that when the scene in Thor The Dark World when Erik Selvig was running amok naked was being filmed, the film makers had to get all kinds of special permits. That was for a short sequence by professional actors and film makers. Yet the great unwashed were allowed to run rampant.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

It's ludicrous that people wouldn't (presumably) trash their own home, but yet they have no issues with trashing the home we all share.

lol! You haven't been in my house when I was younger--and even to some extent today, or my son's place, or my stepson's when he was married, or many of my friends when I was younger (can't really speak to that now...)...

 

[Quintessence]

Why were these people even bringing things that could become garbage to that site in the first place?

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

Why were these people even bringing things that could become garbage to that site in the first place?

Short answer: Party! Party!

 

[Revoltingest]

I loathe litterbugs.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Stonehenge left littered with rubbish after 36,500 revellers descend on ancient site for summer solstice | Daily Mail Online

This is an absolute disgrace and inexcusably disrespectful. The article mentions a carnival atmosphere. I wonder how many of these 36,500 attendees even knew what the event was about.

That is really very sad. Why did not somebody put some dustbins in the area. The Department of Archaeology should be held responsible for it.

Also, they should have welcomed the Sun with a 'Surya Namaskara' (Salutation to the Sun). People can do it for multiple (odd) times, 1, 3, 5, etc. The same is done at Sun-set.

Mantras: 1. Aum Mitrāya Namah 2. Aum Ravaye Namah 3. Aum Suryāya Namah 4. Aum Bhānave Namah 5. Aum Khagāya Namah 6. Aum Pūshne Namah 7. Aum Hiranyagarbhāya Namah 8. Aum Marichaye Namah 9. Aum Adityāya Namah 10. Aum Savitre Namah 11. Aum Arkāya Namah 12. Aum Bhāskaraya Namah

 

[Aupmanyav]

Just like how is it possible for many people to have bad teeth when toothpaste is inexpensive. It's just insane.

One does not need a toothpaste to clean the mouth or teeth. Indians have managed to do that for thousands of years with twigs of various trees (some 22 in my last check) and still do it. Neem (Azadirachta indica) and Babool (Vachellia nilotica) being very popular. Toothpaste has been propped up only for the benefit of corporations.

 

[Altfish]

It was a Daily Mail story; it will have been written 2-weeks before the event, they don't like New Age people, hippies, etc.
Don't expect similar article on rubbish left at Glyndebourne Festival.

 

[Baladas]

I hope this isn't true! It's terrible!

 

[Jainarayan]

Also, they should have welcomed the Sun with a 'Surya Namaskara' (Salutation to the Sun). People can do it for multiple (odd) times, 1, 3, 5, etc. The same is done at Sun-set.

Mantras: 1. Aum Mitrāya Namah 2. Aum Ravaye Namah 3. Aum Suryāya Namah 4. Aum Bhānave Namah 5. Aum Khagāya Namah 6. Aum Pūshne Namah 7. Aum Hiranyagarbhāya Namah 8. Aum Marichaye Namah 9. Aum Adityāya Namah 10. Aum Savitre Namah 11. Aum Arkāya Namah 12. Aum Bhāskaraya Namah

It would have been nice for different religions to greet the sun in their own ways, different yet the same. I don't know how Celtic Pagans and Pagans of other traditions do it, but Ásatrúar have a couple of greetings. I say these in the morning.:

Sunna I hail in Sól's bright light.
May day bring doughty works.
May your shining light
Give me surest might
To all my deeds and doings.

Hail Day! Hail sons of Day and Night, and her daughter now!
Look on us here with loving eyes that waiting we victory win.
Hail to the Gods, ye Goddesses hail, and all the generous Earth.
Give to us goodly speech and healing hands life long.

The first one was written by a modern day skáld (poet) in the traditional style. The second one is from the Sigrdrífumál in the Poetic Edda.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Thorbjorn, I think you know about the three-line 'Gayatri Mantra' which is considered to be the most important mantra (or verse) in Hinduism. It does not mention Sun explicitly, but talks about an effulgent creator deity, Savitr.

"Tat savituh vareniyam, Bhargo devasya dhimahi, Dhiyo yonah prachodayāt." (Exactly as it is found in RigVeda without 'Om' in the beginning or end)

Meaning: That most adorable deity, we meditate on the divine radiance, may it increase our intellect.

It is a late RigVedic mantra, most probably created after Aryans had settled in India (3,000 BC ?)*. Aping the original Gayatri mantra, we now have three-line Gayatri mantras for all deities in the Hindu pantheon. Gayatri is a meter in Sanskrit poetry.

* I completely disagree with the European Indologists who say that RigVeda dates from 1,500 BC. At a minimum it dates from 4,000 BC when Indo-Iranian Aryans adopted the 'sacred thread' in the likeness of Bernard's Belt in the asterism of Orion. The sun rose on the day of vernal equinox at that time in the asterism of Orion, and Orion was considered the creator God (Prajapati - Lord of the people). Since then, the equinox has precessed by three months.

School students performing 'Surya Namaskar' on June 21, Yoga at Angkor Wat, in front of the President's House, 35,000 people attended, a Guiness Book record. Also all over India and the world. Hindu paganism is a vibrant living phenomenon. Broadway, Eiffel Tower, London, Beijing, Madrid.

 

[Riverwolf]

Also, they should have welcomed the Sun with a 'Surya Namaskara' (Salutation to the Sun). People can do it for multiple (odd) times, 1, 3, 5, etc. The same is done at Sun-set.

Mantras: 1. Aum Mitrāya Namah 2. Aum Ravaye Namah 3. Aum Suryāya Namah 4. Aum Bhānave Namah 5. Aum Khagāya Namah 6. Aum Pūshne Namah 7. Aum Hiranyagarbhāya Namah 8. Aum Marichaye Namah 9. Aum Adityāya Namah 10. Aum Savitre Namah 11. Aum Arkāya Namah 12. Aum Bhāskaraya Namah

I'm not sure there'd be enough room at Stonehenge for that, unless it were fully organized and participated in by everyone (as in the event you mention later), which I don't think will happen since Surya Namaskara isn't native to England.

Not that I'd complain if it were done at Stonehenge more regularly on the Solstice celebrations. I remember doing Surya Namaskara in the past, and it's rejuvenating.