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Burning the clocks on the winter solstice

Brighton, despite its somewhat ungodly image as the home of the dirty weekend, does in fact have a considerable history of religious activity.  There are many fine churches and also, perhaps more interestingly, strong connections with non-Christian religions, including being a major centre for Buddhists. The infamous devil-worshipper Aleister Crowley lived in Brighton for a time and there are still said to be many resident witches.  Then, every year on the shortest day, there is a public parade that takes hundreds of effigies of clocks down to the beach for them to be burnt on a bonfire in celebration of the winter solstice.  This Burning of the Clocks, though clearly inspired by ancient paganism, only started in the early 1990s and it has become a very popular annual event.  The pictures in this set were all taken during the parade on December 21st 2003.

The parade starts in the early evening of the shortest day of the year (image 2475-31)

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Copyright © David Gray 2000-2004.  All rights reserved.