The winter solstice falls between 20 and 23 December, depending on the year. In the Northern Hemisphere it marks the passage from autumn into winter and the heart of the dark half of the year, with its shortest day and longest night. Like the log consumed upon the hearth on Christmas Eve, the old sun dies and its light fades during a handful of days when everything is turned upside down and the gates are opened to the dead and to demons. Yet this death contains a spark of hope, for from this moment onwards the days begin to lengthen with the promise of the infant sun.

The sun, however, is still too young. It must wait for its time to confront the reign of fools, terrible old beings and beasts that rule the harshest part of the year. This agricultural and solar narrative found expression in countless religions and in the tales of oral tradition. The season surrounding the winter solstice, like that surrounding the summer solstice, is one of the most significant periods in traditional beliefs throughout the world and, for that very reason, permeates the whole of popular narrative.