Shortest Day

It's easy to imagine a huddle of druids at Stonehenge on a Winter Solstice day 3000 years ago, waiting for the Sun to proclaim the shortest day of the year.  Without our astronomical certainty of the change of seasons, ancient peoples resorted to monuments and festivals to mark the change from dark to light.  The lengthening nights and paucity of light makes me a little crazy this time of year, so the prospect of even 4 more seconds of light tomorrow is enough to merit a celebration.  Banishing the night and celebrating the day is in our collective DNA.  The early Christians jumped on this solstice festival to legitimize their new religion and Christmas was born.  Shortly thereafter, the War on Christmas was declared, at least in the fevered imagination of Bill O'Reilly.