Lögberg-Heimskringla - 16.12.1994, Blaðsíða 3

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 16. desember 1994 • 3
ii
hiístmas B iadítíons of m celand
by Gunnur Isfeld
he Icedandic winters are
long, dark and cold. On
the farms, people used
to gather durin'g the
long winter evenings for
entertainment of story telling, ballad
poetry and such things, to shorten
the long dark evenings while they
worked. Many believe that this was
one of the conditions that led to the
creation and preservation of the
Icelandic Sagas of the 13th century.
Today these are recognized as clas-
sics and a unique medieval literary
achievement.
Because the days are particulary
short during the Christmas Season,
the festivities are prolonged. A spe-
cial Christmas atmosphere persists
for the entire period between
Christmas and New Years and to
Epiphany on January 6th or Twelfth
Night.
In Iceland, Christmas preparations
traditionally began during Advent
when everything was washed, pol-
ished and cleaned and the Christmas
baking done. The farmers would go
to the nearest village and trade wool
and other farm products for necessi-
ties such as flour, coffee, sugar,
raisins and prunes, as well as some
“kandís” (special sugar) for the chil-
dren. They might also butcher a lamb
for fresh meat for the occasion as
well as hangikjöt, svið and pickled
meats.
It was customary to cook the
meat, especially hangikjöt, which was
used as one of the main Christmas
Day dishes, on December 23rd. That
day is called Þorláksmessa in Iceland,
named by St. Þorlákur, the only
Icelander who was Sainted by the
Roman Catholic Church. At 6:00
o’clock on Christmas Eve all the
Work of cleaning and preparing for
this clebration had to be finished.
After a light meal, the family would
go to church for an “aftansöngur”
(evening service) or have a reading of
the Christmas story from the Bible,
sing Christmas carols and have
prayers. Following that, gifts were
exchanged, candles and cards, and
later books and small items of cloth-
ing. Later in the evening there would
be súkkulaði (hot chocolate) and
dainties, pönnukökur, jólakaka and
other baked goods, as well as danc-
ing and singing around the Christmas
tree.
Feasting during mid winter did not
begin with Christianity. During
pagan customs in Iceland midwinter
feasts were held to forget the dark-
ness and celebrate the lengthening of
daylight. The heathen Yule was a
great merry-making feast, which last-
ed for 13 days, and tales of ghosts,
ogres, and satyrs were attached to it.
It is probable though, that the hea-
then feast was held a little later than
the Christian. The sagas and other
poems and folktales reveal how the
activities of the season were a sort of
protection against all evil powers for
as the nights lengthened and the days
shortened, the ghosts gained strength
and reached their highest at Yule-
tide. With the adoption of
Christianity came the celebration of
Christmas, celebrating the birth of
the Christ child who came with love
as a Savior of mankind. In the early
days of Christianity in Iceland
Christmas was not a major celebra-
tion. The feast of St. Michael was
more important and Easter was and
is the major Christian festival. While
Christmas is now celebrated in
Iceland at Yule-tide, the folk stories
are ever present to give its unique fla-
vor and humor to the season.
Part of this folklore were the
jólasveinar. A mid-17th century poem
tells of the old hag Giýla with a bag,
kidnapping and devouring naughty
children — over the good she had no
power. Grýla and her husband
Leppalúði lived in a cave in the
mountains. She was most active dur-
ing the Yule-tide, sending her sons,
the Yule-lads, a kind of goblins or
monster satyrs, 13 in number, one for
each day of the feast, down to the
farms to play tricks on people and
frighten and steal the cranky chil-
dren. Grýla could also appear herself
to take misbehaving children. After
the adoption of Christianity the Yule-
lads were not fórgotten, now they
came down from the mountains one
by one beginning thirteen days before
Christmas, with the last one arriving
on Christmas Eve. Then beginning
on Christmas Day, they disappeared
in the same order and on January 6th
or “The Thirteenth”, the last day of
the holiday- season, the last one
departed.
Their names reveal the nature of
their pranks. The first one to arrive
was the “Stiff-Legged Sheep Chaser”
who came and made trouble on the
farm, stealing milk from the sheep.
Second came the “Gorge Oaf’ who
until the milkmaid’s attention was
elsewhere and then steal the creamy
froth from the top of the milk pails.
“Shorty” came third, and he delight-
ed in “borrowing” kitchen pans and
“cleaning” them for his ever empty
tummy. The fourth in line was
“Spoon Licker” who was very lean
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