Back in the good old days, before the weather patterns changed and before the Christians got hold of the calendar, here in the northern hemisphere winter solstice ended the old year and began the new, and it still does to of a few of us.  In Arizona, the Indians dance every day to ensure the sun rises.  Asked what would happen if they didn't dance, one said ‘the sun won't rise - only a ball of flaming gas will come up on the horizon'.  It's the same as solstice observation - the imbuing of celestial events with significance and hope, peculiar to humanity amongst all of evolution, and the bringing of enchantment into the landscape.  So yah boo sucks to the rationalists, I've been going to Stonehenge for over a decade at winter solstice, it's freezing cold and heavily policed/secured but I meet my real friends and tribe, if I'm lucky see the sun rise (one year we saw a snowbow - sunrise through the falling snow and the colours it cast onto the stones), watch the druids do druidy things (personally I think they're as mad as the rationalists) and then go for a mega veggie fried breakfast with my mates and it's a brilliant start to the new year and I feel charged, empowered, clear and alive, at least for a time. Once again, it's the yearly chant - SEE YOU AT THE STONES.