Picture a winter season from centuries past.
The nights are long, the air is cold and all is quiet except for the wind howling through the trees outside. Starvation and illness are constant threats, meaning communities need to come together to survive.
This makes it laughable to think that “spooky season” ends on Halloween. The “scary ghost stories” referenced in Andy Williams’ famous “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” have fallen out of fashion in recent years, but used to be an important part of the festivities.
Below are some Christmas cryptids that should never be forgotten.
Mari Lwyd
This Welsh specter takes the form of a skeletal horse-woman and has mysterious origins.
In Celtic mythology, gray and white horses have the power to come and go from the spirit world at will. Other stories place her at the stable the night Jesus was born. In this version, she was a pregnant mare who was cast out of the stable and now roams the countryside trying to find a place to give birth.
When Mari Lwyd makes her way through a town, she is accompanied by a raucous group who go door to door singing traditional songs. The songs are often cleverly insulting to the homeowner, who is expected to reply in mischievous verse as well.
If Mari Lwyd and her gang win what is essentially an old-fashioned rap battle, they are allowed to enter the house and help themselves to the family’s food, drink and anything else that catches their eyes.
This isn’t all bad news for the family though; Mari Lwyd’s presence in the house is believed to bring good luck for the next year.
The Yule Cat and Yule Lads
Iceland is a highly superstitious country, and its people have good reason to fear the long nights of winter. One of the embodiments of this fear is in the shockingly unsung Yule Cat.
This giant feline’s origins are thought to come from sheep farmers in the 1800s, who would be rewarded for the year’s hard work with new clothes made from the harvested wool. The Yule Cat’s M.O. is to hunt and eat people who did not receive warm clothes for Christmas, creating an analogy for the need to prepare for the harsh winter weather.
Over time, the Yule Cat also came to be a warning against children misbehaving, joining the ranks of Krampus and the Icelandic ogre Gryla. Naughty children would not only go without a new wool sweater, but run the risk of being gobbled up like an unfortunate mouse.
The aforementioned Gryla is rarely mentioned alone and more often depicted with her thirteen sons, the Yule Lads.
These are gnomelike village menaces with names like “Door Slammer,” “Window Peeper,” “Candie Stealer” and “Bowl Licker,” not leaving much to the imagination.
Pere Fouettard
As many can attest, the scariest monsters are often human. This is the case with Pere Fouettard, the legendary French butcher who travels alongside Saint Nicholas.
This backstory is truly horrific. Fouettard is said to have lured some lost children into his forest home, then waited for them to fall asleep before killing them and chopping them into cubes.
Years went by before Saint Nicholas discovered the crime and forced Fouettard to confess. He then brought the children back to life and sentenced the butcher to live forever in his service. Ever since, Saint Nick has rewarded good children while Fouettard has punished the bad.
This idea of holly-jolly reward and cruel punishment existing together is actually the norm in most European traditions. The American version of Santa Claus is unique in his lack of an evil counterpart, threatening only a lump of coal for those who end up on the “naughty list.”
These examples are only the tip of the “cultural chaos” iceberg that is the winter season. In a time of rampant commercialism and cheesy Hallmark movies, a trip down the collective memory lane can make the darkest time of the year much richer and deeper.
Hannah Kichline, multimedia editor