More than that, there just wasn’t much light to do anything meaningful through the winter. All they had were tallow candles, and they emit very little light - enough to do simple tasks, but not any real work. Even preparing and cooking a proper meal would be difficult after dark.
This is incidentally why there is a disparity in when “dinner” should be for different people. Traditionally, dinner (or the main meal of the day) was had at lunch time, because this was the time of day where you could consistently have enough light to make a big meal. The evening meal was more of a light snack. Then, with the advent of gas and then electric lighting, wealthier people started having dinner parties, where they would have big meals in the evening. Thus, for them dinner became the evening meal, while in other places dinner always was and still is lunch.
More than that, there just wasn’t much light to do anything meaningful through the winter. All they had were tallow candles, and they emit very little light - enough to do simple tasks, but not any real work. Even preparing and cooking a proper meal would be difficult after dark.
This is incidentally why there is a disparity in when “dinner” should be for different people. Traditionally, dinner (or the main meal of the day) was had at lunch time, because this was the time of day where you could consistently have enough light to make a big meal. The evening meal was more of a light snack. Then, with the advent of gas and then electric lighting, wealthier people started having dinner parties, where they would have big meals in the evening. Thus, for them dinner became the evening meal, while in other places dinner always was and still is lunch.