PHOTOS: Solstice celebrants get elevated on Penticton's Munson Mountain

If it’s the 21st of December, the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, there's arguably no better spot in the Okanagan to celebrate than Penticton's Munson Mountain.

Every year on Dec. 21st, known as "winter solstice," folks from across the valley make the trek to – and then up – the small mountain hovering over Penticton's northern shore to mark the happy fact that there'll be more daylight and less darkness every single day going forward through to June 21.

At that point, known as the summer solstice, the procedure reverses and the power of night begins to retake its hold.

But that didn’t matter to the 60 or so people who joined in the fun this past Sunday afternoon. They were there to sing the praises of light, to look forward to spring and the upcoming growing season, and to remember that the road to returning warmth had just been opened – much like other, earlier cultures had done thousands of years in the past.

But why is Munson Mountain the hub of South Okanagan solstice festivities?

Because it delivers one of the most commanding views in the region. Below to the east, the vineyards and orchards of the Naramata Bench. To the west, a breathtaking, unobstructed look at Okanagan Lake and the mountainous western horizon beyond that.

It’s that last bit that’s most significant. Every day of the year, the sun sets over that western horizon. And that's what it did Sunday, just prior to 3:30 PM like every Dec. 21, giving anyone standing on the peak one of the best chances locally of seeing the exact moment of winter solstice.

But there's more to Munson than that.

Fifteen years ago, noted local astronomer and retired Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory scientist Chris Purton, with the help of associates and friends, transported four massive stones to the peak of Munson.

The stones were strategically arranged to guide the eye toward the position of sunset during both the winter and summer solstices and the spring and fall equinoxes.

During cloudless sunsets, the shadow produced when the last vestiges of sunlight hit the appropriate "marker" stone at precisely sunset during all four of those events would then extend directly to the "heel" stone.

Those stones are still there today. And, in a nod to Britain's celebrated "Stonehenge," they’re known collectively as "Pen Henge."

Unfortunately, clouds obscured the sun during this Dec 21 sunset, but that didn’t completely obscure the excitement.

For Pentictonites Peter Maser and wife Claude Roberto, the lure was too great in 2025.

"I've done this a couple times in the past," Said Maser. "We'd do it more often, but it's often cloudy up here at this time of year and as you know you don't get to see the alignment of the sun with the markers."

Maser's right. And when it's not cloudy in late December, it’s often snowy. Or bitterly cold and/or windy, like the memorably brutal celebration of 2022 when temps hit -17 C and wind chill took it deeper than that.

"But it’s important because tomorrow the days start getting longer," added Maser, "and I feel it's psychologically important to know that the warm temperatures and long days of summer are on their way."

Allan Laird of Penticton spoke of "honouring."

"We're here to honour the valley, to honour the change of seasons," he said. "It's important for us to come very year. We try to make it here each season."

Self-described third-generation Penticton resident David Salter, who made the hike with 38-year Pentictonite Marsha Brown, told us about his relationship with the enormous "PENTICTON" sign sitting just a few meters below us on the hillside.

"My father was a water boy for the people who put in the stones that make up the sign," he said. "It was, I think, 1936. He carried drinking water for the guys doing the work."

Sally Kilburg, a regular every year at the event and a member of the Royal Astronomical Society, cautioned that perceptibly longer days are still a ways off.

"Right now the sun is at the bottom of its track and not much happens for ten days or so on either side of this," she said.

"By tomorrow we’ll gain only about a second of daylight. But we're up to about ten minutes a day by mid-January."

For more info on the Okanagan Centre of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada, turn here.