Pen Henge is not the Stonehenge but the idea of observing the winter solstice there is similar.

Image Credit: Pixaby

The official start to winter is today and while marking the winter solstice is a huge celebration in some parts of the world – such as China’s Dongzhi Festival – it’s not that big a deal in Kamloops or most of the Okanagan, but it's growing in popularity.

One place that is observing winter solstice – the transition between days getting shorter to days getting longer – is at the Pen Henge at the top of Munson Mountain – the hill where the Penticton sign resides.

“The winter solstice is very significant and has been celebrated amongst a wide variety of different cultures in the northern hemisphere going back thousands of years,” Chris Purton, the man behind the creation of Pen Henge, told iNFOnews.ca. “The summer solstice is a similar sort of thing but not as important.”

It was back in 2009, during the International Year of Astronomy that Purton, a retired scientist from the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory at White Lake, came up with the idea. He and other members of the Okanagan Astronomical Society of Penticton put on monthly astronomical events for the public that year.

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“In June, we decided we would gather on Munson Mountain and watch the sun set at its most northern setting point,” he said. “While up there I thought, you know, it would be neat to mark this and the other seasons with stones and that’s how it began.”

Four appropriately sized stones were found. Two were from a rock cut on the old Kettle Valley Railway right-of-way on the west side of Skaha Lake and two were from a rock slide along the Ashnola Road in the Similkameen Valley.

There was no significance to those particular stones other than the size and shape, Purton said. They each weigh more than 200 lb., stand about two feet high and have flat sides.

After hammering spikes into the ground to show the correct location for the rocks, Purton approached the Penticton parks department and the city's Recreation Advisory Committee, Dave Gamble wrote in the 2011 edition of the Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

This photo was taken during the installation of Pen Henge with, left to right, Jordy Bouillet, Jim Shover and Chris Purton.

Image Credit: Submitted/Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada

“The proposal was received enthusiastically despite concerns about safety, as the project would draw people to the top of the hill, an unmaintained part of the park with dangerously steep sides,” he wrote. “Penticton council gave the go-ahead under the condition that access paths be improved and that a fence be installed along the steepest edge.”

Three holes were drilled in the bedrock for each stone and rebar cemented in. Those matched three holes that were drilled into each stone and were also cemented to the rebar.

There is a heel stone, an equinox stone and two solstice stones.

Such stone formations have been around for thousands of years in Britain and medicine wheels in North America seem to be similar, Purton said.

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“It was tempting to try to rebuild Stonehenge but totally impractical,” he said.

For the first few years after the project was completed in 2010, the club held four events a year to make the solstices and equinoxes. But, since it was often only Purton who attended the spring and fall equinox events, they stopped advertising those to the public.

The winter solstice has proven to be the most popular with 50 people showing up in a good year.

“People have been celebrating this for thousands of years in a variety of cultures and it’s becoming more popular currently in our culture,” Purton said. “I think it’s largely because they’re fed up with the commercialization of Christmas and want to get back to something real.”

Today’s event will start with a bonfire on private property at the foot of the mountain.

The solstice this year is at 1:48 p.m. It gets earlier by about six hours per year, Purton said.

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“One of the problems with observing the solstice is there is nothing to see,” he said. “We just know it’s happening.”

At the right time he will ring a bell and say a few appropriate words.

The fun part is at sunset, which is at 3:27 p.m., at the top of the hill.

At that time, those few who can fit behind the heel stone can see the sun set right behind the solstice stone.

“It’s actually more fun to watch the shadow of the winter solstice stone as the sun approaches sunset,” Purton said. “Its shadow gets longer and it swings around towards the heel stone then, right at the moment of sunset, it’s right on the heel stone. Everybody can watch that and we’ll have fun with that.”

Usually they will have someone stand on the solstice stone so everyone can watch that shadow grow longer and swing around to the heel stone.

While it may be a snowy climb this year, the forecast s for sunny skies so the sun should put on a show.

Purton has talked with knowledge keepers with the Penticton Indian Band to learn more about local Indigenous customs surrounding solstices.

“They have an observance of the summer solstice, although they gather at sunrise rather than at sunset,” he said. “With the winter solstice they have no particular event or ceremony at the time of the solstice but it kicks off the timing for their winter dances, which is a very important part of their culture.”

The Pen Henge event is one of only three winter solstice activities that show up on a Google search of such events in Kamloops and the Okanagan.

Both of those are in Kelowna.

One is in the pyramid at Summerhill Pyramid Winery on Chute Lake Road.

It features a brief meditational welcome to winter and a world peace blessing with doors opening at 5:30 p.m. There will be a “sound bathing meditation” followed by a vegetarian pot luck, drumming and dancing around “the sacred fire in the Kekuli.”

More information can be found here.

The other is called Medicine Songs for the Earth at Crosby Organics on Dunster Road.

The songs are to “inspire your healing journey and build community connection” and there will be a “holiday feast” starting at 6 p.m. There is a fee to attend.

See more here.

Participants at all three events are encouraged to dress warmly. Temperatures are forecast to reach a high of around -20 Celsius in Kelowna that day and around -17 C in Penticton.

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