Not all
Christmas creatures are benign like Santa Claus. Krampus looks like a demonic
goat who walks on its hind legs like a human. He punishes naughty children, beating them with birch branches and carries a basket on his back so he can carry off
a child to eat later.The 5th of December is Krampusnacht ,men in homemade
Krampus costumes run around Alpine villages causing havoc. These 'Krampus
Runs' continue today.
The Karakoncolos looks like a cross
between the Devil and a Sasquatch. In Turkey, the legend says he would stand at
street corners on winter nights setting riddles for passers-by. If the
traveller gave an answer that included the word ‘black’ they were free to go on
their way. If not, he would strike them dead .Sometimes the Karakoncolos would
just put them in a trance and leave them to roam free. In Serbia, the story
says the Karakoncolos jumps on the victim’s back and uses them as a
ride. The exhausted person was only released at dawn.
Jólakötturinn is the Icelandic Yule
Cat or Christmas Cat. Jólakötturinn, who first appeared in the 19th century, a huge, ferocious beast with razor-like
whiskers, blazing eyes and terrible claws who consumed any child who did not
receive new clothes on Christmas Day.It is tied into an Icelandic tradition in which
those who finish their work on time received new clothes for Christmas, while
those who were lazy did not . Jólakötturinn could tell who the lazy children
were because they did not have at least one new item of clothing for Christmas and
these children would be eaten by the Yule Cat.
Then there is the macabre skeleton mare of Welsh
tradition,Mary Lwyd, which rises from
the dead and wanders the streets with her undead attendants, to remind the
living of their existence. Mary Lwyd wants
to to get into your house. To
keep the zombie horse out, you must engage in a battle of rhymes . Usually singing the rhymes to
which the zombie horse replies.On New Year’s Eve, the undead mare is
represented by a puppeteer parading a horse skull on a pole draped in
white cloth around the towns and villages.
Next there is a creature from Scandinavian folklore
who looks like a gnome and lives among
the dead inside burial mounds called the Tomten.He
can act as a caretaker of the household, that is if you keep on his good side.
The Tomten has quite the temper and is known for biting people who upset him. The bites are poisonous and
deadly. People leave a gift of food out on Christmas Eve for the Tomten.
One of Iceland’s creatures associated with Christmas
is Gryla
a giant troll who is bad tempered with
an insatiable hunger for children.
Each Christmas, Gryla comes down from her mountain dwelling to hunt for naughty
children. She catches them in a sack and
takes them back to her cave where she
boils them alive for her favourite stew.
After
that all it remains is for me to wish you a merry Christmas and thank you for
reading and following the blog xx
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