This little piggy went to Market

Our lovely Covered Market, in fact. And the piggy is not so little in reality, but a hulking great wild boar. In front of the animal is a large deer of some special breed, while behind are two smaller deer.

I know it is a rather gory scene, but I have actually chosen a shot that minimizes the gore as far as possible! I couldn't resist taking some photographs of the striking display while we were finding our Christmas meal at this butcher's shop. As I was looking for a good angle, I noticed one woman glance at the hanging animals as she approached, and she shielded her eyes so as not to see the horrid sight. So my apologies to those of a squeamish disposition. At least these animals ran free while they were alive, unlike the hundreds of turkeys and geese hanging up that apparently caused no dismay...

Now to a more tasteful subject! The days are getting longer...

This morning saw the arrival of the Winter Solstice. Well over 5000 people assembled at Stonehenge to greet the sunrise and mark the solstice. There was special interest this year, because the date coincides with the end of the 5,125-year "long count" cycle of the Mayan calendar, and a surprising number of people believe(d) that the end of the world would come today. So far (early evening) we are OK. Phew!

The December solstice occurs when the sun reaches its most southerly declination of -23.5 degrees. For an observer in the northern hemisphere, the December solstice marks the day of the year with the fewest hours of daylight. All places above a latitude of 66.5 degrees north (Arctic Polar Circle) are now in darkness, and the sun is directly overhead on the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. As a consequence of the structure of the Gregorian calendar, the December solstice occurs annually on a day between 20 and 23 December, but usually on 21 or 22 December (see * at end).

The change in daylight hours is not symmetrical about 12:00 at Greenwich. For a start, solar noon is rarely at this hour. But the earliest sunset was on St Lucy's Day (13 December, at 15:31 in London), and the evenings have been getting lighter since then: by a whole three minutes now. On the other hand, sunrise has been getting later, and will continue doing so until about 5 January, but the net result from now on is that each day is longer. Christmas Day will be 53 seconds longer than today: you might not think it is a big deal, but it is! No wonder the Pagans celebrated the solstice. The Mayans may have it wrong, however.

So celebrate, my friends!

*Information, unlikely to be useful: the next Winter Solstice on 20 December will be in 2080, while the next on 23 December will be in 2303.