There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness: And Other Thoughts on Physics, Philosophy and the World

by Carlo Rovelli

and deeper than Christianity, which appropriated them, embedding its own mythology and theology there and displacing other traditions. Traces survive, transformed: in ancient Rome it was customary to light candles and to exchange presents toward the end of December, long before the birth of Christ. The pagan tribes of the north celebrated the winter solstice long before