Tarde pero no nunca; he aquí el lío maquiavélico que me hizo @VaryIngweion para Yule
#yuletide #yule

Comencemos con el galimatías

An interesting Christmastide tradition from Iceland concerns a giantess named Gryla. She punished naughty children by ... putting them in a soup and cooking and eating them. She was assisted by 13 Yule Lads - troll-like brothers who captured badly behaved kids in sacks and were also sometimes partial to snacking on them. Such stories were so terrifying that in 1746 the government issued a law forbidding parents to use tales of the Yule Lads to frighten their children. Today, the Yule Lads are jollier, kinder figures, perhaps having been softened by the influence of the American Santa Claus. #folklore #Yule #Christmas #weird #mythology

Perchta is a Christmas witch or monster found in Austria and Bavaria. She is active during the 12 nights of Christmas and, especially, on 6th January. She rewards good children, but bad children are cut open with a ploughshare, disembowelled, stuffed with straw then sewn up using a chain as thread. Perchta will also punish anyone who works on household tasks during the Christmas period and anyone who doesn't leave food and drink out for her. #Christmas #Yule #folklore #weird #mythology #12daysofchristmas #gothic

I started out with the idea to make these little orange lanterns for each table to symbolize the sun but boy were they tedious and a mess.

So I switched gears and made a centerpiece.

The term 'Boxing Day' comes from the fact that servants, workers and tradespeople had 'Christmas boxes'. On 26th December - or in the run-up to Christmas - they expected those they had served throughout the year to place a tip in these containers. The boxes were earthenware, with a slot in the top, and had to be broken to get the money out. Working out who owed tips to who could be an expensive and complicated business and could cause resentment. An article in the satirical magazine 'Punch' from 1849 complained of "our postman ... who has all year scarcely condescended to greet us with the odd nod has ... been making a series of low bows, which for some time we thought were ironically meant, until we remembered the compliments of the season ..." #BoxingDay #Christmas #Yule #folklore #history

A Tale of Two Yules https://www.medievalists.net/2020/12/medieval-yule/ #Yule #Christmas

I hope you got everything you wanted this #Xmas.

Cheers (️) to #PEACE & #JOY (& to all the everyday things that go into making those possible)

Today (in 2024, the 8 nights of #Chanukah start at sundown on 25 #December! ) but more than just today ~ EVERY DAY

Happy Holidays!

#Winter #holidays #Hanukkah #Christmas #Christmas2024 #Jul #Yule #motivation #meditation #photo #photography #coffee @photography @photo @chronicillness @mecfs @disability @coffee @espresso

My city has an event where people could color in a drawing of the cathedral tower and send in the coloring, and now they are projecting them on to the tower. It is fantastic.

Happy day, whatever you celebrate. And for the northern hemisphere, more daylight hours are on the way

A strange Christmas Eve tradition in Sweden is 'The Year Walk'. If you leave the house before dawn without speaking to anyone, looking into any fires or eating anything and go to the churchyard, you will see the shadowy enactments of any burials due to take place in the coming year. There are, however, hazards with this - you might see your own burial; the graves might open, releasing those who died unhappy deaths; you could lose an eye to the ghosts or lose your sanity. Some walkers have disappeared into the night forever. If you peer through the church keyhole, you might see the dead holding a service - though there's always the danger they'll insist any living interlopers must stay. #gothic #folklore #wierd #Christmas #ChristmasEve #Yule #Sweden #ghosts #paranormal #graveyard

Anticipation …

One peculiar Christmas custom was the boy bishop. Between St Nicholas's Day ( December 6th) and the Feast of Holy Innocents (December 28th) a cathedral choirboy would take over all the duties of his bishop except for saying mass. He preached sermons and - accompanied by his friends dressed as priests - performed circuits of the city, blessing the inhabitants. Some adult priests joined in the role reversal by dressing as choristers. Though controversial for its apparent mockery of the clergy, the boy bishop tradition was extremely popular and was not stamped out until the reign of Elizabeth I. A tomb in Salisbury Cathedral - bearing an effigy of a miniature bishop - is said to be the grave of a boy bishop who died in office. My article of strange Christmas traditions: https://www.davidcastleton.net/strange-christmas-folklore-customs-mari-lwyd/ #folklore #history #weird #churches #Christmas #Yule #medieval

Santa Claus has not always been clad in red. Early depictions clothed him in white, red, green and blue. In the 20th century, however, red became more predominant and was further established by a Coca-Cola marketing campaign based around Santa. It helped Coke that their brand colour was also red and they even patented the shade of Santa's outfit. My article: https://www.davidcastleton.net/old-father-christmas-coca-cola-history-santa-claus/ #Christmas #folklore #history #Yule #weird #capitalism

Watch has been kept on this, the longest night.
Also - it’s effing COLD OUT! 25 degrees Fahrenheit here (-3.8 Celsius) so after the fire we headed inside for mulled cider and my heated blanket! #yule #WinterSolstice #LongestNight

Wishing all #Pratchett fans a happy #Hogswatch!

I made my friend Lorna a #wreath for the occasion.

“Today is the Solstice... We can make light now. We can make light for each other. We can offer up our hope, our creativity, and our love."

My latest newsletter is on the importance of rest, and the ways we can share light. Thank you for reading: https://thorncoyle.kit.com/posts/we-can-be-light

It's the sleepiest time of the year, so this week, I bring to you some soothing pictures of decorative mushrooms and my napping cat in the blog post I call

Yule nap time

https://rinsemiddlebliss.com/posts/2024-12-20-yule/

Happy Solstice!

Found some time to get into the woods for my own personal ritual. I will be headed to angel mounds later this afternoon to watch the Sun go down over one of the Native American mounds.

Various superstitions were associated with Christmas, especially those concerning the essentials of life - money, fire and food. During Christmastide, there was a widespread taboo on fire leaving the house. Before the invention of matches, it was common to ask for a light from a neighbour's fire, but not at Christmas. According to Shropshire folklorist Charlotte Burne (1805): "Asking to borrow a bit of fire, or even a light for a candle, on Christmas Day or any day until after Old Twelfth Day was the greatest insult we could offer to a neighbour, as nothing was more certain to cause bad luck to a family for the ensuing year." #folklore #history #Christmas #Yule #weird