Hello everyone! I hope you are having an awesome Friday. Here is where the story begins. I have collected information about Iceland´s jólasveinar (Santa's) from many sources and this seems to be the most agreed upon version....
The 13 Jólasveinar ("yule lads" is probably more accurate translation than Santa) first appeared in the 17th century as the sons of Grýla and Leppalúði (more on them in the next 2 days--and trust me they are nothing like Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus plus they have a Christmas cat--it´s not a cat to play with!) This strange family lives in the mountains of Iceland and one per day starting on the 12th of December (13 days before Christmas)comes to town with the last one arriving the morning of Christmas eve. Children leave a shoe in the window ledge each of the 13 nights, for the jólasveinar to leave little gifts in. The last day being a bit bigger than the previous nights. However, much like my childhood American version of coal in your stockings, if the child has been naughty then they get a rotten onion or potato in their shoe. Ewww! After Christmas they start leaving to return home one day at a time for 13 days--this last day of the Santas leaving is referred to þrettándinn...maybe they are happy to see the little rascals leave (this will make more sense in the days to come)? This adds up to the Christmas season in Iceland being 26 days!
The long season is probably my favorite thing about Iceland´s Christmas...It lasts a long time and people don´t just forget about Christmas on the 26th (most Icelanders are known to take a hefty 5 days off work (24-26th and 31st-1st for certain). In fact it´s not uncommon for someone to take the 23rd of Dec - 2nd of Jan. off. I LOVE IT! We should stop and relax for more than a day or 2. Although this year I will not be practicing this custom because my master´s thesis is breathing down my neck! For the most part though people are merry and relaxed as they participate in the many Icelandic Christmas traditions (I´ll share more along the way).
This story is intended to encourage young children to behave well around Christmas. Apparently terrifying them with thoughts of being eaten (wait until tomorrow) or receiving potatoes/onions instead of gifts is an effective method. I will be participating in putting my shoe in the window for the 13 days and hopefully my best behavior will earn some gifts(spoiler alert--my wonderful boyfriend has decided to play along with me on this). Stay tuned to learn more about Grýla tomorrow...
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