No, I certainly don't love winter; I rather loathe it. Hope it will be mild this year, as they predict (hope?) But it is good to remember that some festivals we may have reason to hate because of the schlock, mindless overconsumption (or exclusion from any consumption) or interpersonal dynamics have their roots in the natural world. The Summer Solstice is now Aboriginal Peoples' Day, and la Fête nationale du Québec was "La St-Jean", which had its roots in this celebration. Both Solstices involve lights and fire, and gatherings of family and friends (and frenemies, and the family equivalent)... Food and Drink (sometimes too much)... song, stories, defying the terrors nature held for people in earlier times.
I've found Joyeux Solstice references among French secularists a long time ago (remember, they had it in for their "own" Church, nothing to do with the perversion of secularism among certain Front national "identitaire" types).
