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Bizarre Christmas facts
Everything you need to know about the festive season!
Yule-Tide:
The Christmas word ‘Yule’ is associated with ancient Scandinavian-Norse folklore. People back then would celebrate the Winter Solstice with wild drinking, feasting and general rí rá agus ruaille buaille. Sounds fairly like my hometown over the Christmas holidays!
Mince Pies:
Eating mince pies around Christmas is an early Christian custom. Mince pies were baked to represent Christ in the cradle. The pastry on the pie represented the cradle and the mince pie filling in the centre, Jesus himself. Will you ever look at mince pies the same way again?
Boxing Day:
Irish people seem to be divided into those who refer to the 26th of December as Boxing Day or St. Stephen's Day. Contrary to popular belief, Boxing Day isn’t British at all, but in fact goes back over 2,000 years to Roman times. Back then, people were encouraged to put spare change in a wooden charity box during Christmas. The boxes were all collected and the coins counted on Boxing Day. Priests then distributed presents and charity to the needy.
St. Stephen’s Day:
According to early Christian tradition, St. Stephen was the first martyr to be killed for his religious beliefs. The story goes that Stephen was being pursued by Roman guards and hid in a bush to evade capture. He nearly got away from the Romans until a wren bird in the bush began to peep loudly and jump wildly from branch to branch. This alerted the Romans to where Stephen was hiding and led to his death, so the story goes. After that, the Wren had a bad press in Europe and in Ireland the Wren boys used to go out and hunt the wren on St Stephens Day.
Santa Claus:
Some people think that ‘Santy’ was invented by Coca Cola. Santa’s true origins, however, are even more bizarre. Most people could tell you that Santa Claus is an Americanisation of Saint Nicholas who is the patron saint of children.
But where did the white wizards beard, red and white uniform and flying reindeers come from? The answer is they originate in an ancient Sami practice. The Sami are indigenous people who still herd huge numbers of reindeers in Lapland (Northern Sweden and Finland).
In the dark icy depth of winter Sami people were forced to spend much of their time in skin covered shelters with a central fire for heat. The Shaman or medicine man of the family went out and picked a red and white mushroom that gave powerful hallucinogenic side effects when eaten. The shaman would then enter a trance and eat enough of this mushroom to turn a sane elephant cuckoo for life. It would pass through his system and his urine was collected in a cup. Members of the tribe then took a sup of the Shaman’s pee and get very ‘spaced out’.
It is said that when they then opened the flaps of the shelter on a cold frosty night, some of the reindeers were flying over the snow with stardust trailing from their hooves. Prancer and Dancer, I never would have guessed!
By: Keith Corcoran
