Granted, the equinox celebrations at Stonehenge are hokum, a modern take on pre-Christian celebrations of the sun. As Rosemary Hill, author of the best modern book on Stonehenge, points out, no one knows what ceremonies it was built for. “Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge go back at best to the midsummer fairs of the 17th century. Most of the druid orders were founded in the Seventies and Eighties.” Yet she also points out the place is also associated with a tradition of English radicalism dating from the Diggers.
I’m not sure that this tradition is quite what the pair — one Oxford student, one 73-year-old Quaker — who sprayed orange coloured cornflour over the stones are channeling. Just Stop Oil (JSO) says stone circles were built all over Europe, “showing we have always co-operated over vast distance — we’re building on that legacy.” Really? What it actually looks like is a stunt to capture attention at one of those events guaranteed to attract the attention of press photographers, what with the tiresome invention, “King Arthur Pendragon”, et al.
