THE passing of the shortest day of the year was celebrated at the top of Fort Royal Park, in Worcester, on Sunday, as crowds gathered to cheer the promise of longer days.

The Winter Solstice Festival, in its second year, was organised by Worcester City Council park wardens and Friends of Fort Royal Park.

A workshop was carried out by Ian Craigan, a Worcester-based storyteller and artist with Puppet Tree Community Arts who brought the hopes of longer daylight hours to life with animation and colour.

Groups made two large puppets one representing the sun and another, the moon, which were paraded around the park when the sun went down. Followers then watched as the sun and moon circled one another in a rival dance before throwing themselves onto the fire. Groups of adults and children were then invited to write down wishes and hopes for the coming year which were thrown into the flames.

"It is a great community event which I think will get more popular each year," said Mr Craigan. "This year is slightly different to last, but basically it's about community involvement and the celebration of seeing the nights get shorter and the days longer through storytelling and puppetry."

Workshops were carried out in marquees where frames were made for the sun and moon puppets and everyone had a chance to decorate them with coloured tissue paper.

The two puppets were sent to separate parts of the park where followers carried hand-made paper tassels in sun and moon colours and each group chanted as they met in front of the fire.

Richard Shaw, a member of the Friends of Fort Royal Park, said he was pleased to see so many people come along to join in the fun.

"It has been very successful and helped a lot by the weather. It has been good to see so many local people out and to see the park so busy.

"This is going to be an annual event now, and we hope it will get busier each year as it grows in popularity. It's especially good that we are now seeing the back of the short days and can look forward to it getting lighter after today. That is something to celebrate."