Sometime either tonight or tomorrow night will be the longest night of the year. Tomorrow will see the Winter Solstice when, north of the equator, the sun shows up latest, and leaves earliest.
It is a day humans have been marking for millennia, the day after which the sun makes its “comeback” and the days grow longer. It begins a process that will continue until June 21, the longest day (and shortest night) of the year and the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.
It is probably no coincidence that major religious holidays occur around this date. Religions tend to adopt earlier festivals and make them their own. I expect there will be a celebration at Stonehenge and four days later we celebrate Christmas.
