nPostednon December 14, 2013
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AsnChristmas draws near, in Iceland, children begin to leave their shoesnin the windows, in hopes that the Yule Lads soon will be there!
AsnChristmas draws near, in Iceland, children begin to leave their shoesnin the windows, in hopes that the Yule Lads soon will be there!n
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nThisncustom is similar to Dutch children leaving their wooden shoes outnfor presents on the eve of December 6 (St. Nicholas Day).n But the children in Iceland leave their shoes out every evening fromnDecember 11 until Christmas!
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nEachnYule Lad comes down from the mountain, one per night, until all 13nYule Lads have arrived on Christmas Eve! And as they pass through thentowns and cities of Iceland, they put small gifts into the children’snshoes—if they children remembered to put their shoes in thenwindows!
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| Some towns portray the 13 Yule Lads as 13 red-coated Santas! |
nThenYule Lads are trolls from Icelandic folklore, but they started out innstories as a lot more mean—maybe even evil!—than they arenportrayed today. These days, they range from jolly and sweet Santancharacters to more traditional-looking tricksters. Some Icelandersncall them the Christmas Men. n
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nBynthe way, the Yule Lads supposedly give to children who have beennnaughty, not lumps of coal, but rather potatoes. I’ve even read thatnmisbehaving kids are supposedly given rotten potatoes. I betnthat’s just a threat, and that nobody really wakes up to discover hisnor her shoe filled with rotten potatoes!
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nTodaynthe Icelandic children are discovering the gift left by Stubby, thenYule Lad who is abnormally short and who steals pans to eat the crustnleft on them. Tonight the Yule Lad Spoon-Licker will arrive in townnand leave another small gift. (I think you can guess what this ladndoes!) Some of the other Yule Lads include Gully Gawk, Pot-Scraper,nWindow-Peeper, and Candle-Stealer.
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n(Ofncourse, all these names are in the Icelandic language: Stúfur,nÞvörusleikir, Giljagaur, Pottaskefill, Gluggagægir, Kertasníkir,nand so on.)
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nInwas surprised to find out that this beloved custom only got its startnin Iceland around the 1930s, and that the Folk Custom Division ofnthe National Museum had to step in and launch an informationalncampaign to tweak the custom into the form enjoyed by Icelandersntoday! I guess I always assume that customs like these have been innplace for centuries rather than decades.
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nAlsonon this date:
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Day of the Horse
Day of the Horse n
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nAnniversary of the first “modern-day” imitation pearls
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MonkeynDay
MonkeynDay n
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nAnniversarynof President LBJ saying, “Some geniuses at Stanford Universitynhave created life in the test tube!” –when that wasn’tnwhat actually happened!
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nAnniversarynof the first humans to reach South Pole
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest pages on:
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nDecembern holidays
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nDecembern birthdays
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- Historicaln anniversaries in December
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJanuaryn holidays
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nJanuaryn birthdays
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nHistoricaln anniversaries in January
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