During the bleak Christmas of 2020 in the midst of covid lockdowns, I researched and wrote a 24 day thread on Twitter of European winter folklore. In case a certain bratty billionaire decides to finally kill off the site, I’m preserving it here. Expect much child-eating, belly-slitting and unpleasant hijinks.
Door no.1…
Jólakötturinn! The giant Icelandic Yule Cat lives in the snowy mountains, ready to eat any people who haven’t received new clothes before Christmas Eve. Farmers used the threat of the Yule Cat to scare workers in finishing processing wool before Christmas.
Door no.2…
Père Fouettard aka Father Whipper! In France he accompanies St Nicholas on 6th Dec bound in chains and giving out lumps of coal and beating naughty children. He originates from a 12th century innkeeper who allegedly killed & ate children in a nearby religious school.
Door. no.3…
Julbocken! The Yule Goat is a pagan tradition connected to the worship of Thor who rode a chariot drawn by two goats, Tanngrisnir & Tanngnjóstr. The Yule Goat is made of the last sheafs of the harvest as an offering to Thor to bring gifts and good fortune.
The town of Gävle in Sweden, the Gävle Goat or Gävlebocken made of straw & red ribbons is erected at the beginning of advent in Castle Square. Half the town protect the goat, the other half try to burn it. You can keep an eye on his fate here.
Door no.4…
Nuuttipukki! On 13th Jan (St. Knut’s Day) in Finland, the nuuttipukki spirits (human goat monsters) go from house to house demanding food, booze and other offerings. If they didn’t get it, legend said they would attack the householders and steal children.
Door no.5…
Belsnickel! A legend from Southwestern Germanic folklore, the Belsnickel wears tatty, dirty furs and visits houses after dark in December. He carries a switch for whipping naughty children, while dealing out cakes and nuts to good children.
Door no.6…
GRUß VOM KRAMPUS! 6th Dec is the feast of St Nicholas & the evening before is Krampusnacht, the festival of the most famous Christmas devil of all! The goat-demon Krampus, who dates back to pre-Christian times in Alpine regions, now teams up with St Nicholas to punish naughty children.
From the 17th century onwards, he has been a central figure of St Nicholas day in Bavaria and Austria, however in the 1930s was banned by the ruling fascist Vaterländische Front party as a symbol of paganism.
Krampusnacht is a hugely popular festival across the German-speaking world and features in parades in which participants dress as the infamous monster. In the 19th and mid 20th centuries, images of a female krampus for St Nicholas cards became very popular; she is often depicted carrying off cheating husbands to their doom.
Door no.7…
Straggele! In Alpine regions, Straggele demons accompany the pagan goddess Perchta on her rounds of houses during the 12 days of Christmas. If the householders had been lazy and slothful during the year, Straggele would slit their bellies open and rip them to pieces.
Door no.8…
Frau Perchta! Appearing as an old or young woman, she visits homes in midwinter to judge if children and younger servants had behaved well. If they had, they would find a silver coin in their shoe. If they hadn’t, she would remove their stomach and stuff them straw and pebbles.
Door no.9…
Hans Trapp! Wandering the forests of the Alsace-Lorraine, the scarecrow spirit accompanies St Nicholas to warn children to be good. He is based on Hans Von Troth, a 15th century knight who lived a sinful life and was excommunicated; legend says he hid in forests and ate children.
Door no.10…
Jólasveinar or Yule Lads! There are 13 of these half-troll lads, children of the witch giantess Gryla, and they take it in turns to visit children in Iceland in the run up to Christmas. If children have been good, they leave treats on the windowsill. If they have been bad, they leave rotten potatoes.
Jólasveinar begin their visits on 12th December, starting with Stekkjastaur (Sheep-Cote Clod) who steals sheep, and finishing with Kertasníkir (Candle Beggar) who eats candles. Others include Bjúgnakrækir (Sausage Swiper), Þvörusleikir (Spoon Licker), Hurðaskellir (Door Slammer), Gáttaþefur (Door Sniffer) and Stúfur (Stubby).
Door no.11…
Gryla! Giantess, witch and mother to the Jólasveinar, Gryla can smell naughty children. At Christmas time she goes from house to house in Iceland demanding parents hand over their children who have behaved badly over the year so she can gut them and cook them in a pot.
Door no.12…
Mari Lwyd! Between Christmas Day and twelfth night, Mari Lwyd (a horse skull on a pole decorated with ribbons and baubles for eyes) is taken round villages in South Wales by groups of Wassailers who sing songs before they’re let in people’s homes for food and drink.
Sometimes the group will perform pwnco (a series of rude rhymes) with the household. Mari Lwyd can also cause mischief during her visits, stealing things and chasing people. By admitting her in, it’s said to bring good luck for the new year.
Door no.13…
Lussi! 13th December is St Lucia’s Day, the feast day of St Lucia of Syracuse, Sicily, one of the great virgin martyrs of the Diocletian Persecution of the fourth century. It is also winter solstice or Lussinatten in the old Norwegian calendar. During the longest night of the year, Lussi, the embodiment of darkness, would across the countryside on an oskorei (soul-raving hunt, not dissimilar to The Wild Hunt of Norse mythology) stealing anyone outside in the dark.
It became tradition to hang crosses on doors to protect homes from the scourge of the oskorei and people would burn lussi fires to mark the changing of the sun’s course. From the Protestant reformation, girls would dress as St Lucia, wearing crowns of candles and offerings of drink and food to celebrate.
Door no.14…
Kallikantzaroi! These goblins live in the earth’s core during the year where they try to cut down the tree of life but come out at night between Christmas Day and Epiphany, causing chaos in Southeast Europe and the Anatolia peninsula. They invade homes, steal things and wreak havoc.
Door no.15…
Apple Tree Man! A Somerset folk tale, he is the spirit of the oldest apple tree in an orchard. Legend says if you pour wassail on his roots on Christmas Eve, he will grand you good fortune. To avoid angering him, you must leave a single apple on the tree at harvest.
Door no.16…
Zwarte Piet! Yes it is racist. Before 16th century, the depiction of Zwarte Piet in the Low Countries was that of a tamed demon slave of Sinterklaas who told him which children were naughty and needed punishment.
However, after the Dutch invasion of Ghana and Senegal and expansion of the Dutch empire into South East Asia, it was replaced with the image of a human slave who was usually black. This image then became normalised in 1850 with the publication of children’s book Saint Nicholas & his Servant, in which Zwarte Piet is depicted as a black man in North African Muslim attire and described using racist epithets. There are those who still hold on to this depiction to this day despite the fact the tradition of Zwarte Piet as a demon is a much longer tradition.
Door no.17…
The Dorset Ooser! Possibly a tradition going back to Roman times, the Ooser, a mask of the Devil, would be donned to take part of a ritual called Skimmington Riding in west country villages, demanding food & drink, scaring children and chiding unfaithful husbands.
The last know remaining original mask, discovered in a malthouse in the village of Melbury Osmond in 1891. By the time it was discovered, it’s significance was mostly lost as Anglo-Saxon pagan traditions went with Christian colonisation. It disappeared 10 years later. I wrote a silly story about it based loosely on the myth.
Door no.18…
Knecht Ruprecht! Helper of St Nicholas in Germany, he wears a dark robe with a pointed hood and carries a long staff. He asks children if they say their prayers; if they don’t, he beats them with a bag of ashes and gives them to Krampus to throw in an icy river.
Door no.19…
Nisse (or tomte, tomtenisse, or tonttu)! These Nordic folk live in and protect homes from evil. If treated badly, they have a short temper and will play tricks, steal things and even maim animals in revenge. They are normally only a few inches tall wear huge red hats.
Door no. 20…
Snegurochka! The snow maiden is from Russian folklore, made by an elderly couple who couldn’t have children. She was created from snow, 2 blue beads for eyes and a red ribbon for a mouth. She travels with Ded Moroz when he visits children with gifts in the New Year.
Door no.21…
Ded Moroz or Grandfather Frost! He is the wizard of midwinter and dates back to Slavic pagan culture, bringing gifts to children on New Years Eve. He lives in the frozen depths of Vologda Oblast in north eastern Russia, formally a part of Finland. Initially he was banned by the Bolsheviks as a symbol of bourgeois decadence, but in 1935 was brought back as national symbol of the Soviet winter holiday Novy God.
Door no. 22…
The Holly King! The personification of winter in Celtic and English paganism, the Holly King, the ruler of all things evergreen, is locked in a constant battle with the Oak King, the personification of summer, and gains his strength from the Autumn Equinox and is at the height of his powers at the Winter Solstice. They are symbols of the pagan wheel of the year, the constant changing of the seasons, of death and rebirth of the sun.
Door no.23…
Lutin! These house-dwelling hobgoblins, originally from Normandy but widely known across the Francophone world, assist Père Noël in delivering gifts. Sometimes they take the form of domestic animals or, if they are bad, have rotten teeth and cause mischief such as tangling people and animals’ hair into elf locks.
Door no.24…
The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come! Not exactly a fixture of long forgotten folklore but a terrifying creature of recent creation nonetheless.
Charles Dickens wrote the serialised story of A Christmas Carol at a time when celebrating Christmas as we do now was becoming more common. For example, the tradition of Christmas trees introduced by Prince Albert in the 1830s from Alsace region of Germany.
Dickens saw as wealth was accumulated in London from the expansion of empire and the industrial revolution, normal people were getting poorer. The laissez-faire politics popularised by the work of economist Adam Smith had become rampant in Victorian society and had seen an unprecedented decline in quality of life for the urban poor. He was particularly concerned that children had to work in horrible conditions, were malnourished and dying in squalor. Dickens wrote letters and gave speeches across the country in the 1840s urging employers to improve conditions for their workers and education for children. When he was ignored, he decided to create a parable about social injustice and published A Christmas Carol in 1843.
The protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge is the embodiment of the ills of capitalism and wilful ignorance to the suffering of the poor. The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come is there to teach him how he has the power and means to change the misfortunes of others, how if he continues to be ambivalent to those who need his help the most vulnerable will die needlessly, and moreover his inevitable death will be of no consequence to anyone.
Dickens describes the ghost as “shrouded in a deep black garment, which concealed its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand. But for this it would have been difficult to detach its figure from the night.”. It is through his interactions with the ghosts that Scrooge learns the error of his ways, to be kind and generous to others, that he can leave a legacy of goodwill at Christmas and throughout the year. A message as poignant today as ever.
BONUS UPDATE for 2023…
La Befana! As if I could miss off the Christmas witch of Italy. Befana, a grandmotherly witch-like old woman, flies through the night sky on a broom on Epiphany (6th January) to leave sweets and toys in the socks of good children, and coal, blackened candy, onions or garlic for naughty children.
Italian Christian legend has it that Befana provided shelter to the Magi (the three wise men) in the days running up to the birth of Christ. The Magi invited her to join them on their journey to find the baby, but she declined as she was too busy with housework. Later she changed her mind and tried to search for them but couldn’t find them. Now she returns every year looking for the son of God, bringing gifts for the baby and her broom to help the new mother clean. It is said that she leaves gifts for every child as Christ can be found in all children. To uphold her reputation as a diligent housekeeper, she sweeps the floor of homes as she leaves.
This legend comes from the worship of the Roman goddess Strenua who is associated with the end of year festival of Saturnalia, the longest, rowdiest and most jubilant of annual Roman celebrations. It is believed that Saturnalia was adopted during the Christianisation of Europe in the fourth century AD as the basis of Christmas. The consuls of Rome held parades for Strenua on 1st January, carrying bundles of sticks in procession and gifts were exchanged with the public as a good omen for the coming year.
And that’s it! I hope everyone has loved reading about these lads as much as I’ve enjoyed writing about them. Merry Christmas / Joyeux Noël / Frohe Weihnachten / Glædelig Jul / God Jul / Gleðileg jól / c рождеством / Nadolig Llawen / Buon Natale / Feliz Navidad / Zalig Kerstmis