Long before Christian Christmas absorbed pagan festivities, our ancestors climbed the mountains to light bonfires, burn logs, and bring down tiles. They did so not to commemorate any divine birth, but for sheer survival: it was necessary to awaken the Sun, to give it strength so that it could be reborn, and to ensure that light would return to fertilize the earth. Symbolically, humans brought to the earth the light that was missing from the sky to help the Sun gather energy to work again and begin the cycle of eternal return. Fire destroys to purify, and the vegetation—pine, fir, beech—offers itself as a sacrifice and releases the solar energy it has stored up during the summer to return it to the community in the heart of winter.