[thechat] santa question - quickie

[Elfur Logadottir]

From: "Scott Dexter" <sgd at ti3.com>

| >
| > Wasn't santa invented in, like, 1920 or something?
|
| The current westernized Santa, the fat man with white beard, was
| invented by the Coca-Cola Bottling company as part of their advertising
| campaigns, I believe back in the '20s. Before that, Kris Kringle, the
| European version, tall and thin, was the icon of Christmas....

(since proven false, but still, i have to reply ;)

and then there's the icelandic version:

(at least) 13 different santas (yulemen) plus parents ... who all started
out as scoundrels, stealing and peaking etc.

looking for good english reference ...

don't know how good, but interesting ...
http://www.jolahusid.com/engl/santas.htm
(explains in some detail how santa today is derived from St. Nicholas, and
then also the icelandic version)
http://jol.ismennt.is/english/christmas-lads-museum.htm
(another website explaining the icelandic yulemen/yuletide lads)
http://www.isholf.is/gardarj/
an introduction of the icelandic yule tradition, yuletide lads and all


and the names: Sausage Snatcher, Window Peeper, Sniffer, Meat Hook, Pot
Scraper, etc. ...

http://www.jolahusid.com/engl/yulemen.htm
http://www.natmus.is/Skemmtilegt/jolasveinar/jolasvein.htm
(this one is in icelandic, from our national museum, but displays photos of
all 13 in the order they appear; one each night for the last 13 nights
before dec 24)
http://www.islandia.is/~juljul/jol/jolasveinarnir.htm
(this one is also in icelandic, but displays a more recent version of the
13 yulemen, need to scroll down to bottom see them)

and last but certainly not least, their mother, the troll Grýla (read:
Greela)

http://www.jolahusid.com/engl/gryla.htm

how's that for hijacking a thread ...

laters
elfur
*the 'sneaking-from-statistics-study' one*