Nature on our doorsteps: Ancient observers
Rosaleen Dwyer is the County Heritage Officer at South Dublin County Council – every week she gives us an insight into the natural heritage around us and the beautiful biodiversity of the plants and creatures.
Our prehistoric ancestors were keen observers of the world around them.
They carefully watched and listened to nature, and they noted the passing of the seasons by the life cycles of the plants, birds, and animals around them.
They also carefully watched the movement of the moon and stars.
They particularly observed the sun.
They knew that as the seasons progressed through the year, the point on the horizon where the sun rises every morning appears to move in a regular direction towards the south.
They may not have known that the cause behind this seasonal pattern of sun movement was that the Earth tilts on its axis.
In mid-summer, the sun appears to rise in the east and it sets in the west.
As the season moves towards autumn and winter, the Earth’s tilt repositions us away from the sun.
MIstletoe’s ability to grow on bare branches was a powerful fertility symbol.
Our ancient ancestors observed that the location on the horizon where the sun rose every morning changed, moving very slowly, day by day, towards the south.
They would have then seen that a time came in winter when this movement of sunrise along the horizon appeared to stop for a few days.
After this, the location for sunrise began to reverse its direction and move slowly once again back towards due east by mid-summer.
The period when the location for sunrise appears to stop is the time of the winter solstice.
The precise moment of the winter solstice is the mid-point within those few days when the sun appears to be stationary. In Celtic tradition this marks the New Year when the season changed from winter to spring.
Our prehistoric ancestors celebrated this time of hope and resilience, and they built their sacred tombs in such a way as to ‘catch’ the rays of the rising sun over those days of the solstice.
In the Irish language, the winter solstice is referred to as An Grian Stad, ‘the sun stop’, and in 2024 it occurs on December 21.
