Episode 10 - YULE BE SURPRISED - written and presented by Mark Norman

11/30/2016

No matter which was you cut it and no matter how you celebrate it, there is no doubt that Yule is a time of year steeped in tradition. Some of this will be unique to your own family and some will be more generally known. Other symbols and motifs occur frequently and are either timeless or have been changed and appropriated in other ways over the years.

In this edition of The Folklore Podcast, creator and host Mark Norman examines some of the customs, traditions and beliefs surrounding the festivities of Christmas, Yule and/or the Winter Solstice (to name but three variations). From candles to trees, reindeer to mistletoe and Santa to Krampus, learn some of the ancient roots and origins of the imagery that endures to this day. You may be surprised by some of the history of your favourite Christmas symbols.

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1 Comment

Rupanzel

12/5/2016 09:33:41 am

The best argument against The red and white Santa costume being inspired by shaman tradition is that the outfit originallycame in a large variety of colors and red only prevailed when chemical productions of colors made the color red easily affordable for everyone.

Interesting I wasn't aware of a version of the legend about boniface an the Thor's oak that links it to Christmas. It certainly make sense to rebrand fir threes as Christian symbols that way.

I wonder if the folklore surroounding advent candles was originally pragmatic andlater becamemythicized or originally was ground in magical practices and latrwas raionalized. While where I live the practices have remained, the reasons given for them are pragmatic: To avoid children getting burnt by touching the candles and to prevent soot rom dirtying it.

I was a bit disappointed that you didn't make more clear in which regions of Germany and other German speaking countries Krampus is part of Folklore, since you're usually very good at making clear that Folklore is a regional thing that doesn't usually encompass whole language areas. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine since may foreigners sem to believe that Krampus is a figure of folklore through all of Germany ad seem to e surprised when told that St Nicholas day is celebrated very diferently throughout Germany and in some protestant regions isn't a big deal at all.

By the way the "Piet" in Zwarte Piet is pronounce very similar to the english "Pete". In Dutch "ie" is not pronounced as two letters, but signfies a long [i] sound like for instance in "keen" or, well, "Pete".

Episode 10 - YULE BE SURPRISED - written and presented by Mark Norman

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