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Winter Holiday Thread

Started by pyewacket, December 04, 2015, 12:33:34 AM

Quote from: momijithing~awoo on December 14, 2016, 06:31:51 PM
I'm dreaming of a White Christmas

That is a perfect example of black humor.  lol. My wife and I cracked up.


K_Dubb

Some old Lucia images

don't know what that is on the plate; maybe a julekake?


here you can see the traditional saffron buns, shaped that way for reasons nobody can remember:


here she rides the Yule goat:


traditionally the oldest daughter played Lucia at home and woke everyone up with fresh buns, cookies and coffee:


Old photograph


Her attendants include star boys for some reason, probably to keep the kids out of trouble


The Jultomte also gets a visit


Scary disembodied head from 1913:


What happens when silly moderns get ahold of it.  At least the buns are right:

pyewacket

Happy St. Lucy's Day, K_Dubb!

Lucy Light,
The Shortest day &
The Longest Night.


Thank you for sharing those delightful pictures and music videos. :)

K_Dubb

From 1896, star boys with a fascinating creature who must be a relative of the krampus:



Also check out the star -- Christ at the top with the four evangelists.  Looks like a nativity in the middle, but can't make out what that is in the bottom triangle.  Pretty sophisticated iconography.

K_Dubb

Quote from: pyewacket on December 15, 2016, 12:54:54 AM
Happy St. Lucy's Day, K_Dubb!

Lucy Light,
The Shortest day &
The Longest Night.


Thank you for sharing those delightful pictures and music videos. :)

To you too, Pye!  It only gets brighter from here.

K_Dubb

I really wonder what is going on here.  Dated 1943.  Is that a type of barrel organ?


pyewacket


pyewacket

Quote from: K_Dubb on December 15, 2016, 01:05:02 AM
I really wonder what is going on here.  Dated 1943.  Is that a type of barrel organ?

Do you think it plays cylinders? Maybe an organ grinder or street organ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQZ-tM4UC_o

akwilly

Quote from: K_Dubb on December 15, 2016, 12:58:36 AM
From 1896, star boys with a fascinating creature who must be a relative of the krampus:



Also check out the star -- Christ at the top with the four evangelists.  Looks like a nativity in the middle, but can't make out what that is in the bottom triangle.  Pretty sophisticated iconography.
wow very strange

K_Dubb

Quote from: pyewacket on December 15, 2016, 01:22:56 AM
Do you think it plays cylinders? Maybe an organ grinder or street organ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQZ-tM4UC_o

Oh that is cool!  Most of the ones I've seen show off the little pipes that play.  Given the late date and no visible pipes, just what looks like a speaker grille, I wonder if it's a portable record player used in the same way.  But I've never seen one of those.

Thank you for the lovely carol, too.

K_Dubb

Quote from: akwilly on December 15, 2016, 02:02:03 AM
wow very strange

Except for the absence of horns, I'd say he is nuuttipukki (Knut-goat) associated with St. Knut's day, January 13.  I don't know if there is a Swedish word for him.  Here is a modern version:



Some other characters who accompanied the star-boys, and another star covered with arcane symbols:



Petersburg, Alaska (where I've always wanted to visit) still does a thing they call julebukking where, during the week before Christmas, stores give out food to the customers, a continuation of the food-begging part of the custom.  It doesn't look like anybody dresses up any more, though:



K_Dubb

Ah, here is the explanation, from Swedish:

QuoteIn the star-boys' trains were often Christmas goats who collected donations. Julbocken masks were sometimes fitted with a funnel between the jaws where spirits could be poured straight into a keg that hung around their necks so that it could be saved for a later date.

http://www.nordiskamuseet.se/aretsdagar/trettonhelgen

The star boys themselves have their roots in a medieval mystery play enacting the visit of the three kings and the massacre of the innocents and other characters in the drama, such as King Herod, also appear:



It's a tradition common to all of old Europe and, to my dismay, seems to have originated with the English.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_singers

Russia, 1880s:



The goat figures in Scandinavia, though, are almost certainly pagan in origin.

K_Dubb

Some cool Russian paintings.  That illuminated lantern must have looked spectacular in the darkness.




K_Dubb

A version of the star boys' (tiernapojat) play is still performed in Finland, culturally just about the most conservative country in Europe.  Here in their inimitable joyless style:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdEdAYdYILI

and here in metal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH2TCV3PjE0

K_Dubb



Roughly,
Quote
Christmas song

Blessings in cups, mugs and jugs,
Blessings to happiness but not to drunkenness --
Soon Christmas comes,
And again we will feel the old yearning

pyewacket

Thank you so much, K_Dubb! Many of these customs appear to have roots in our common ancestry- all those pre-Christian pagan groups. :)

Christmas Eve used to be dedicated to a group of female deities and was called Mothers Night.

Here's a good link with recipes. :)

https://gathervictoria.com/2015/12/16/cranberry-hazelnut-peppermint-honey-cake-hail-to-the-mothers/

An Iron Age Cult of Ancestral Mothers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqd14dWDMsA

Rix Gins

Some photos and recipes in this website: http://rockmymakeup.blogspot.com/2011/12/having-1950s-christmas.html  The old couple are shaped just like my grandparents on Mom's side.  And wearing the same type of clothes, too.  Only the heads are different.  Haha



There are some dinner descriptions also.  Anyone ever have Hard Brazil nut sauce?  Snowflake potatos?  Corn-bread diamonds?

K_Dubb

Quote from: pyewacket on December 15, 2016, 02:56:56 PM
Thank you so much, K_Dubb! Many of these customs appear to have roots in our common ancestry- all those pre-Christian pagan groups. :)

Christmas Eve used to be dedicated to a group of female deities and was called Mothers Night.

Here's a good link with recipes. :)

https://gathervictoria.com/2015/12/16/cranberry-hazelnut-peppermint-honey-cake-hail-to-the-mothers/

An Iron Age Cult of Ancestral Mothers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqd14dWDMsA

Ha, I love Maria Kvilhaug because she isn't afraid to speculate and make novel connections, unlike most dry old scholars of mythology.  Very tempting to tie the trio to the Norns, who water the tree of life and spin out everyone's fate.  Also, her accent sounds like my grandma.

Would make a logical counterpart to Yule itself, which is probably associated with Odin -- he is explicitly called the Yule-father in the Prose Edda, and his mythological DNA is perpetuated to a degree in Santa Claus.

K_Dubb

Quote from: Rix Gins on December 15, 2016, 03:47:00 PM
Some photos and recipes in this website: http://rockmymakeup.blogspot.com/2011/12/having-1950s-christmas.html  The old couple are shaped just like my grandparents on Mom's side.  And wearing the same type of clothes, too.  Only the heads are different.  Haha



There are some dinner descriptions also.  Anyone ever have Hard Brazil nut sauce?  Snowflake potatos?  Corn-bread diamonds?

Ha, Grandpa used to rock the flannel-shirt-and-suspenders too!  What a cool photo.  I wish we could see that tree topper -- looks like maybe a candle in a halo?

Those menus are awesome.  Anyone who can turn potatoes in to something worthy of the name "snowflake" is a culinary wizard.

K_Dubb

Quote from: pyewacket on December 15, 2016, 02:56:56 PM
Here's a good link with recipes. :)

https://gathervictoria.com/2015/12/16/cranberry-hazelnut-peppermint-honey-cake-hail-to-the-mothers/


Interesting recipe, notable for avoiding eastern spices.  I wonder if saffron is also a reasonable candidate since it grows in Europe, is colored like the sun, is delicious in baking, and its potency would have made it ideal for ancient trade.  In addition to the Swedish Lucia buns, there is a Norwegian bun, the solboller, whose connection with the sun is explicit -- it is baked for a few days when the sun first appears in the far north.  Most are colored with turmeric now, but guessing at a saffron original isn't too much of a stretch.


ItsOver

"Did someone say Tooomeric?"


Seriously, those look very tasty.

pyewacket

Quote from: ItsOver on December 15, 2016, 05:10:19 PM
"Did someone say Tooomeric?"


Seriously, those look very tasty.

HAHAHA- Now I know this thread has hit the big time because George made an appearance!

Don't forget the tea!


ItsOver

Quote from: pyewacket on December 15, 2016, 05:40:22 PM
HAHAHA- Now I know this thread has hit the big time because George made an appearance!

Don't forget the tea!


"I enjoy my tooomeric tea with some Carnivora Christmas cookies.  They are powful immune and pocket book boosters for me!"

 

pyewacket

IO- Let's take George wassailing.  ;D

Quote from: novareinna.com
Few holiday traditions have endured as long or seen so many variations as that of wassailing. Its origins are unknown, but it is mentioned in texts dating as far back as the Fourteenth Century. In one such text, the leader of a group took a bowl and, raising it to the crowd, shouted "Wassail!" an Old English term meaning "to your health."

There are three variations of the wassailing. One is the filling of a common bowl or cup, often referred to by ancient clergy as the Loving Cup, which was passed around a room to be shared by all. Another variation calls for the bowl to be taken to each individual house, so that neighbors might partake of the wassail as friends. The third is a celebration of the apple harvest and the blessing of the fruit.

The earliest known practice of the wassail was to pour it onto dormant crops and orchards after the harvest to bless the ground for the Spring and ward off evil. Like many such customs originally devoted to defense against wickedness, wassailing has always been something of a festive activity associated with partying and making merry. In the past few centuries, the practice has tended to have more to do with good cheer and well- wishing rather than the blessing of crops.

Wassailing is almost always accompanied by the song: "Here We Come A-Wassailing," which is a Christmas classic loved by many but understood by few. It is often misinterpreted and likened to the act of singing...hence the frequently used "Here We Come A-Caroling" which is substituted for the first line of this popular carol.

The actual ingredients in traditional wassail are widely disputed. This could be attributable to the fact that festive bands who traveled from home to home often replenished the bowl with whatever liquid refreshment was available. While one home might have apple cider, another might have spirits of a stronger sort. There can be dlittle doubt that alcohol has played a storied part of wassail's history, but tradition does not dictate it to be necessary. In fact, the custom is not so much concerned with drink as it is with the good will and society that wassailing generates.

Although wassailing is classically observed during the Christmas holiday season, it is also practiced at weddings and other such similar events where community and family are celebrated.

http://www.novareinna.com/festive/yule.html

More info and a recipe: 

http://nourishedkitchen.com/traditional-wassail-recipe/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-gzt7TLEXw

Mulled Wine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8J_LKOvhp4

IO- Just make sure George knows to use Allspice- not Old Spice  ;D


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnvMQMLGSlU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucjXu1rN2cI









pyewacket

Quote from: ItsOver on December 15, 2016, 06:02:01 PM
"I enjoy my tooomeric tea with some Carnivora Christmas cookies.  They are powful immune and pocket book boosters for me!"



Carnivora cookies for George.  ;)


ItsOver

Ha!  I think Jorch goes "wassailing" a number of nights with Tommee.   Sometimes, even without him. :))




K_Dubb



Roughly (hard to tell because of the tear):

Quote
One Christmas, when mother was small,
She heard someone, in the evening,
Stand outside stomping
By way of knocking at the door.
In a stepped a Yule goat,
Bearded, and hairy coat.
He took a bag of small packages up.

Here is a rare card blending the Yule goat and the later Yule elf, maybe documenting the transition between gift-bringing entities:


K_Dubb

Proof that the Swedish Jultomte is part of the Masonic conspiracy that killed JFK:


Rix Gins

Quote from: K_Dubb on December 16, 2016, 04:26:19 PM
Proof that the Swedish Jultomte is part of the Masonic conspiracy that killed JFK:



I want that pipe!

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