The Vikings began their Christmas celebration at home, says Herleik Baklid, a cultural historian at the University of South-Eastern Norway. Then they would begin socializing.
People came walking and riding on horses and in sledges with sheepskin rugs over their shoulders. The chieftain in the area had invited everyone to the midtvinterblot, a midwinter sacrificial feast. The guests brought barrels of beer, mead, food, and perhaps some animals to be slaughtered.
The fireplaces were lit and decorated in the long house, in the main yard. This was Christmas celebrations, Viking style.
RussianPlus - Driving from London to Russia. Russian Girl after 17 years in Britain.
"My cousin Katya drove from London to Russia alone for a winter vacation in Russia and to escape the lockdown in Britain. 4700km covered in 4 days! I asked her about her life in London and what she thought of modern Russia."
NEWTON | Autograph manuscript notes on the Great Pyramid of Egypt, c. 1680s
"... unpublished notes showing Newton’s attempts to unlock codes hidden in the Bible and determine the timing of the apocalypse are now being sold by Sotheby’s. Three pages of scribblings on the Egyptian pyramids, which Newton believed held the key to profound secrets, are expected to fetch hundreds of thousands of pounds when online bidding closes on Tuesday.
"In a variation on 'the dog ate my homework', the notes are scorched from a fire apparently caused by Newton’s hound, Diamond, jumping onto a table and tipping over a candle."
