In Ancient Britain, the Anglo-Saxons called January ‘Aefterra Giolo,’ (After Yule) or ‘Wulf Monath.’ In hard winters desperate wolves came down to the villages in search of food, with sometimes disastrous consequences for people, or wolves liable to end up as clothing.
But the worst winter in maritime Britain is nothing, swaddled by the moderating influence of the surrounding seas, compared with the long rigour of a continental winter: North America, Canada, Russia and Siberia.
So, how do we deal with the absence of abundance? How have we always dealt with it?
The obvious answer is by planning. The human is not, essentially, a cold weather animal. Man is not a hibernating animal, even if sometimes we might wish we were. Our cradle was Africa; the oldest known group of humans alive today are Sub-Saharan African. Modern Man came north in waves of migration as the ice sheets retreated during the last Ice Age about 30,000 years ago. Certain peoples of the farthest north, the Inuit, have adapted physically with a distinctive body build. We too, may experience metabolic changes, sleeping more, being more inclined to gain than lose weight, but this could simply be in response to changed behaviour, being less active outdoors.