Seems to me that if we look at RW examples, they support Mark's contentions rather well. For the agriculturaly based "pagan" religions, the midwinter festivals were/are a time of lighting bonfires and Singing Really Loud, to speed the Sun back from his sleep/death/torpor. In the midst of winter, it is not the necessary fallowness of the fields which is generally celebrated, but the coming return of warmth and light. (Because that previous statement is hopelessly general, it is necessarily false in any number of specific cases, but the gist, I believe, is sound.)
The QUERY: Where, both geographically and reference-wise, does one find Firshala? Sounds interesting, but I can't find her in any of the stuff I have... (I know, you find her on the God Plane...)
Thanks, Paul.
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