Today marks the Winter Solstice - also known as the shortest day - when the sun is at its lowest and the night at its longest.

Although the Winter Solstice itself lasts only a moment - this year’s is tonight at 9:47pm - the day on which it occurs has also become known as the solstice and is traditionally seen as the middle of winter and is a time marked by festivals and rituals which celebrate the symbolic death and rebirth of the Sun.

In Wales the Solstice is sometimes said to be marked with the festival of  Alban Arthan - a ritual inspired by the writings of Iolo Morganwg, the 19th-century radical poet and forger.

This largely made-up festival suggests - with scant evidence - that on the solstice druids would gather by the oldest mistletoe-clad oak where the chief druid would climb the tree, clutching his silver sword which he used to cut the mistletoe which would be caught in a sheet by his fellow druids who take special care that none of it touches the ground.

So far there have been no reports of the ritual taking place in Abergavenny…although this year may be the first so please send pictures and video if you happen to spot a team of druids making their way through Cross Street!

Equally popular on the Solstice - and across the Christmas season - is the telling of tales of ghost and ghouls, which have thrilled and chilled listeners for centuries and to mark the occasion why not take a look back at the stories of some of the ghosts which are said to haunt the Nevill Street offices of The Abergavenny Chronicle with this special edition of Haunted Abergavenny….