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Following an annual all-night party, thousands of new agers and neo-pagans waited at the ancient stone circle Stonehenge for the sun to come up, but cloudy skies prevented them.
They danced and whooped in delight marking the summer solstice, the longest day of the year.
(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis
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(AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)
AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis
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(AP Photo/John Froschauer)
AP Photo/John Froschauer
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(AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar
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(AP Photo/Dan Joling)
AP Photo/Dan Joling
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(AP Photo/Jeffrey Furticella)
AP Photo/Jeffrey Furticella
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Longyearbyen is the seat of Norwegian local administration in Svalbard, 620 miles south of the North Pole, and was founded in 1906 by the American John Munroe Longyear who started coal mining here, an important part of the local history ever since.
Longyearbyen was only opened for general tourism in 1990 and is a haven for eco-tourists who come to see the abundant polar bears, seals and whales. Svalbard consists of a group of islands.
(Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images)
Photo by Chris Jackson/Getty Images
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White Night festivities take place in cities around the world and see thousands celebrate the prolonged daylight that occurs in areas of high altitude during the summer solstice.
(Getty Images/Ilia Yefimovich)
Getty Images/Ilia Yefimovich
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A few dozen archaeologists, officials and listened at the site to Saudi archaeologist Nabeel Yousuf al-Shaikh Yaqoob explain his theory that the 4,000-year-old civilization positioned an unusually angled corner of its temple, at right, to line up with the setting sun on the summer solstice, thereby allowing priests to declare the start of the new year.
If true, Yaqoob claims the Delmonians would have been the first to use a solar calendar in the ancient world.
(AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)
AP Photo/Hasan Jamali
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(AP Photo/John McConnico)
AP Photo/John McConnico
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In many regions of continental Europe, bonfires are made traditionally on June 24, which is, for Roman Catholics the solemnity of John the Baptist.
The rite is, however, older, and originally was a pagan celebration of the summer solstice and hence celebrated as "midsummer" on June 21.
(AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
AP Photo/Darko Bandic
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The festivities of Ivan Kupala or John the Baptist is similar to Mardi Gras and reflects pre-Christian Slavic traditions and practices.
After the 1991 Soviet collapse Russia has seen a revival of Russian Orthodox church along with a surge of peripheral movements and creeds.
(AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev
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(AP Photo/William Fernando Martinez)
AP Photo/William Fernando Martinez
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(AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti
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(AP Photo/Keystone, Gaetan Bally)
AP Photo/Keystone, Gaetan Bally
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(AP Photo/Luis Romero)
AP Photo/Luis Romero
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(AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo)
AP Photo/Ricardo Arduengo
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According to pre-christian traditions, fairies, called in Romanian 'Sanziene', come to earth around the summer solstice bringing fertility to land and beings for the coming summer.
(AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda
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Ivan Kupala or St. John's Day or Midsummer Day, is a traditional carnival, which centers around a bonfire with plenty of food and dancing.
(AP Photo/Sergei Grits)
AP Photo/Sergei Grits
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Pictured here, Quechua indigenous spiritual guides hold their hands toward Titicaca Lake during a ceremony marking the solstice on the Isla del Sol Dec. 21, 2012.
(AP Photo/Juan Karita)
AP Photo/Juan Karita
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A dog waits to be sold for meat in a market in Yulin, in southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Residents in the southern Chinese city that's come under fire for an annual summer solstice festival in which thousands of dogs are slaughtered for food have held their feasts early to avoid attention.
(AP Photo/Humane Society International)
AP Photo/Humane Society International
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