Posted
on December 14, 2013
As
Christmas draws near, in Iceland, children begin to leave their shoes
in the windows, in hopes that the Yule Lads soon will be there!
This
custom is similar to Dutch children leaving their wooden shoes out
for presents on the eve of December 6 (St. Nicholas Day).
But the children in Iceland leave their shoes out every evening from
December 11 until Christmas!
Each
Yule Lad comes down from the mountain, one per night, until all 13
Yule Lads have arrived on Christmas Eve! And as they pass through the
towns and cities of Iceland, they put small gifts into the children's
shoes—if they children remembered to put their shoes in the
windows!
 |
| Some towns portray the 13 Yule Lads as 13 red-coated Santas! |
By
the way, the Yule Lads supposedly give to children who have been
naughty, not lumps of coal, but rather potatoes. I've even read that
misbehaving kids are supposedly given rotten potatoes. I bet
that's just a threat, and that nobody really wakes up to discover his
or her shoe filled with rotten potatoes!
Today
the Icelandic children are discovering the gift left by Stubby, the
Yule Lad who is abnormally short and who steals pans to eat the crust
left on them. Tonight the Yule Lad Spoon-Licker will arrive in town
and leave another small gift. (I think you can guess what this lad
does!) Some of the other Yule Lads include Gully Gawk, Pot-Scraper,
Window-Peeper, and Candle-Stealer.
(Of
course, all these names are in the Icelandic language: Stúfur,
Þvörusleikir, Giljagaur, Pottaskefill, Gluggagægir, Kertasníkir,
and so on.)
I
was surprised to find out that this beloved custom only got its start
in Iceland around the 1930s, and that the Folk Custom Division of
the National Museum had to step in and launch an informational
campaign to tweak the custom into the form enjoyed by Icelanders
today! I guess I always assume that customs like these have been in
place for centuries rather than decades.
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