Marina wrote:

And I celebrate Yule (jul in Swedish and joulu in Finnish). Yule has
been celebrated here in the north since the dawn of time (heh, it's a
solstice feast), eons before Christianity reached us.

I'll bet it has! Probably a collective festival of *relief*.

It's very true that cultures all over the world have some sort of
festival involving lights during their winter.

--
I want freedom, the right to self expression, everyone's right to
beautiful radiant things. -- Emma Goldman