Get drunk, light a fire, and eat dumplings or fruit! it’s Winter Solstice!
It’s the nadir of the year. The longest night, the shortest day. What’re you gonna do? What else? Have a party! That’s apparently been the Winter Solstice solution of choice for cultures all over the Northern Hemisphere since at least Neolithic times. The famous triple-spiral design incised inside the Newgrange tomb, popularly thought to be Celtic, actually predates the Celts by several thousand years. It bears a striking resemblance to sun symbols seen elsewhere in northern Europe. The opening of the…