Custom
Burning the Clocks
The year goes up in paper and willow.
Stand where it happened
- What's there
- City streets and beach
- Legend from
- Modern custom
- Tone
- Heartwarming
Paper clocks, carried to the sea on the longest night and set alight.
Burning the Clocks has been held in Brighton on the winter solstice, 21 December, since 1993. People make lanterns from willow canes and white tissue paper, each with a clock face, and carry them through the city centre to the beach. There the lanterns are burned on a bonfire with fireworks. The organisers, Same Sky, call it an antidote to commercial Christmas and a new 'urban ritual'. The event took a fallow year in 2025 and Same Sky says it returns in full in 2026.