On one of the longest nights of the year — and shortest days — people gathered in an Amherst hall to sing holiday songs and continue a tradition started thousands of years ago by people who worshiped not deities, but the world around them.
Long before organized religion, pagans paid homage to the earth, water, fire, air and the spirit, the five elements. On Saturday, the date of a New Moon in the Valley, a pagan networking group celebrated Yule, marking the winter solstice.
