Midwinter Partying

In early societies that lived on the razors edge between survival and extinction, the winter was known as a time of famine. Any excess live stock had to be killed off before the truly hard months set in. This slaughter and the copious amounts of meat it produced were the communal feasts, sort of a last blow out before the rationing set in. But midwinter partying for its own sake is, of course, only part of the story. Just as humans have always been finding excuses to have holidays, we have also always had a strange fixation with astronomy.