The White Falcon - 23.12.1944, Blaðsíða 2

2
A GI artists’ conception of an old Icelandic Christmas legend.
Christmas is a time of
festival in Iceland as in
all Christian countries
and is now observed more
or less the same as in
many other Scandinavian
lands. While many of the
old customs and super-
stitions have disappeared;
a number of the old, typi-
cally Icelandic customs,
have survived and native
folklore has created both
cheerful and sinister
beings, many of whom
make their appearance
around the Christmas se-
ason.
Christmas Eve is the
most emphasized holiday.
At six o’clock all work
must be finished and ev-
eryone must be dressed
in Christmas finery-usu-
ally wearing at least one
new garment. Everyone
must be at home or at
service, ready to observe
the holiest of all holy
hours. All rooms are de-
corated for Christmas,
with candles everywhere.
There is an old legend
that should all the candl-
es go out before Christ-
mas morning some-
one in the house would
die before next Christ-
mas. Christmas delicaci-
es, including a thin, round
cake fried in deep fat, are
everywhere. Bowls heap-
ed high with apples, nuts
and sweets are in every
room. For many years
now Christmas trees have
been imported and are
very popular. »
Each Christmas a ritu-
al is performed. When
all the people have gath-
ered together in the liv-
ing room of the home at
the stroke of six, the mast-
er of the house takes out
the Bible and reads the
Christmas service. When
this is done everyone
wishes each other a Merry
Christmas with a hand-
shake and a kiss. Then
the children, joined by the
adults, walk around the
Christmas tree, sinking
carols. After that, the
housewife brings in the
servings of Christmas
food. This is followed
later with coffee and hot
sugared griddlecakes with
raisins, accompanied by
the singing of more carols.
Christmas, in addition
to being a religious festi-
val, has always -been
particularly welcome
here for it marks the turn-
ing point of winter. The
short, dark days of winter
resulted in the creation of
all kinds of folklore of
sinister beings magnified
by the darkness. If childr-
en were naughty they
might expect Gryla or
LeppaluSi to take them,
v Gryla was a real monster
and she happened to like
a human diet at Christ-
mas. LeppaluSi, her hus-
band, was the ugliest of
all monsters. The jola-
isveinar (Yule Swains)
who were sort of gnom-
es, were the sons of Gryla
and LeppaluSi. There
were 13 of them, with
funny names like “Sau-
sage Thief” and “Candle
Begger”. The old belief
was that they came down
from the mountains to
visit farmhouses, one a
day for 13 days before
Christmas and then return-
ed after' Christmas in the
same manner until
Twelfth Night, which in
Iceland is called Brett-
andinn — (Thirteenth
Night) counted from
Christmas Eve, instead of
Christmas Day.
However, there were
were more cheerful and
beneficent spirits connect-
ed with Christmas, too.
According to old super-
stitions, elves also enjoy-
ed the festival of light
connected with Christ-
mas and it was believed
that homes were bright
with Christmas lights,
celebration and music. It
was customary long ago
for a housewife, after
putting her house in ord-
er Christmas Eve, to voice
an invitation to the imag-
inary elves, saying,
“Come all those who will;
stay those who will; go
those who will; without
harm to me or mine.”
This was done to let the
elves know they were wel-
come.
Twelfth Night, (or the
Icelandic Thirteenth
Night) marks the end of
the Christmas season in
Iceland. The night is pass-
ed in merry-making. Ye-
ars ago, children, clad as
elveS, danced and sang
elf-songs around huge
bone-fires. Twelfth Night,
too, is surrounded hy
many legends. It is said
that cows receive the gift
of speech that magic
night. One’s dreams have
the greatest significance
that night, too, for it was
the Twelfth Night that the
Wise Men of the East had
their dream about the
Christ Child.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCSOOOCiOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCCC

ABROAD IN ICELAND
ICELANDIC CHRISTMAS
President’s Christmas
Greetings On Local
Station Tomorrow Night
President Roosevelt’s
greetings to American ser-
vicemen and women will be
rebroadcast over the Armed
Forces Radio Station at 2145
hours, Christmas Eve, weat-
her permitting.
Flight Surgeons Say
GIs Lose Personality
Traits In Air Combat
After two years of investi-
gation of AAF personnel in
combat, medical officers of
the Air Service Command
have come to the conclusion
that the personality of an
individual soldier “doesn’t
mean a thing” — once he’s
under fire. According to their
report, a soldier can be bash-
ful or noisy, introvert or ex-
trovert, but when faced
with flak or fighter planes,
he’ll react fairly uniformly
and develop a coolness
which makes individual
traits or variations disap-
pear.
“During violent combat,”
stated a flight surgeon of the
Command in a case report,
“the reactions of the men
were remarkably alike. They
were all quietly precise on
the interphone and decisive
in action. Three of the crew
were severely wounded early
in the fight, but all three
kept at their duties efficient-
ly. In the period over the
Channel and over England,
when disaster was moment-
arily expected, alternative
plans of action were made
clearly and with no other
thought than the safety of
the crew.”
PRETTY CASUAL,
THESE NAVY MEN!
On Saipan recently a group
of Mai'ines picked up a radio
message sent by a pilot of
the U.S. Navy to his carrier.
The Leatherneck radiomen
had first heard the carrier
direct the pilot to a certain
sector of the island to “in-
vestigate anti-aircraft fire
reported coming from a
farmhouse.”
A few moments later they
heard the calm, casual reply:
“Have investigated anti-air-
craft fire. Am hailing out.”
Identification Bracelet
Found Near Fieldhouse
An identification bracelet
was found near the Andrews
Fieldhouse this week. The
owner may pick up the bra-
celet by identifying it at the
White Falcon Office, Base
Special Service.