Summer solstice, originally uploaded by Newsblogpicture.

Reports say around 17,000 people went to Stonehenge to mark the summer solstice. In the following excerpt from the AP news wire, a colorfully dressed participant explains why:

''This is the nearest thing I've got to religion,'' said Ray Meadows, 34, of Bristol, England. The solstice ''is a way of giving thanks to the earth and the universe.''

Meadows, wearing a wreath of pink carnations over long pink hair-wrapped braids, identified herself as a fairy of the Tribe of Frog.