Celebrating the Winter Solstice

The ancient Britons understood darkness in a way we never will. Today marks the

winter solstice, the day when night wins its biggest victory before losing the war.

To these people, this wasn't theoretical. When the sun set today, it had been getting

weaker for six straight months. Crops had stopped growing. Animals had gone

into hiding. The world felt like it was dying. So they celebrated Yule,

a defiant celebration of the face of cosmic uncertainty. They lit enormous bonfires that could

be seen for miles, basically screaming at the universe that humans refuse to surrender to

darkness. At sacred sites like Stonehenge, they gathered before dawn,