The circle of life

In the modern world, there are a number of people who deem themselves "inhabitants of the night", because, contrary to the common practice, most of their waking hours happen after the sun has set. This encompasses not only the workers of the different types of entertainment and leisure industry (theaters, restaurants, taxi drivers) but also the providers of some basic services that happen at night (deliveries, garbage collection, street cleaning, emergency services). However, in the big picture of the history of humanity this is a relatively new luxury.

Humans are diurnal animals, as it is clear by our poor night vision and the fact that we do not have any other sense that can replace it at night. As with other omnivorous hominids, the combination of recollection and scavenging (eventually with the hunting of small animals) during the daytime proved to provide sufficient nourishment for our upkeep for a couple of millions of years, leaving the nights for activities that could be conducted under shelter and in the dark.

Photo: Jarek Tuszyński

The control of fire expanded our reach in two ways: first, cooked meals provided better nourishment, allowed us to feed on sources that were not palatable before and improved the value of other foods that we already ate, so that does individuals did not have to gather food all day long anymore and had some free time; additionally, the fire provided illumination and some level protection, so that the number of activities that could be safely conducted after dusk increased dramatically.

Still, the circle of light provided by the campfire or by a torch was, paraphrasing Elton John in "The Lion King", the Circle of Life. The fear of the dark is ancestral and many kids have problems getting used to being alone at night, because we are truly helpless. As George R. R. Martin accurately depicts in his Magnum Opus "A Song of Ice and Fire" by the mouth of the followers of R'hllor, the Lord of Light, "the night is dark and full of terrors". The religion is imagined, but the fears are just as real, and indeed very much shared across cultures and continents.

Another evolutionary peculiarity of the humankind is that we are not used to hibernating. Whereas in the forests of Europe and North America it makes sense for many big mammals (ans some not that big) to spend the dark winter months sleeping in their burrows, in the savannas of  central Africa where humans there is only limited seasonal variation both in weather and duration of the daylight, so there was no reason for us to have varying sleeping patterns.

As a consequence of this lack of variation, when our forebears migrated to Eurasia they found themselves with a surplus of waking night hours during the winter. The summer and autumn months were of hard work in the pastoral and agricultural societies, harvesting, sheering, sowing, and generally preparing for the scarcity. But in winter there were significantly less things to do: the day was short and the few animals that roamed the winter nights were bound to be rather hungry, so the winter time became a time of waiting for the new year, praying for mild weather, and forging stories.

The amount of mythology linked to winter is just baffling. From the Saturnalia festivals in Ancient Rome, where they commemorated a "Golden Age" where the fruits of the nature could be picked without labor (akin to the Christian Eden), to the Krampus that would chase and punish the kids that misbehaved, many legends revolve around this time where humans do not control the land (or not so much) and magical creature roam around. Also Santa Claus and his original version Joulupukki are both holders of strong magic powers, delivering gifts in an unbelievable way, not unlike other gift givers like the Biblical Magi in Southern Europe.

So next time you see the Christmas lights decorating the streets you can now think of the long centuries where a bunch of faint candles was the only reminder that people had that the dark scary months of winter will eventually pass and give way to the rebirth of spring. Have a nice evening.