Hello and welcome back to the Most Amazing Channel
on
the internet!
I am your host Rebecca Felgate and today we
are talking about the Top 10 Holiday Urban Legends.
10 - The Hanukkah Goblins The Hanukkah is a popular story in Jewish
culture about a number of dastardly goblins who have taken over a synagog and are stopping
people from celebrating the holiday.
Each year they blow out the Menorah and basically stop the magic of the holiday.
That all changes when Hershel of Ostropol comes to town and fights off a different Goblin
each night of Hanukkah.
In the end he has to face the Goblin King…who sadly isn’t David Bowie.
The story is actually a popular kids book created by Eric Kimmel but it has become so
engrained in Jewish culture and tradition at this time of year that it has become an
urban legend in its own right.
Parents will often talk to their children about the Hanukkah Goblins as if they are
real.
9 - Père Fouettard A lot of you guys may have heard of the legends
of Saint Nicholas.
Good old saint nick was a kindly chap who helped a widowed man provide a dowry for his
daughters.
From the legends of Saint Nick, Father Christmas, and Santa were born.
Unfortunately though, he didn’t keep great company.
Accompanying Saint Nicholas as he is celebrated in Europe each year, there is often a character
called Pere Fouettard.
What is his deal?
Well he was a butcher who decided to rob three wealthy boys as they travelled to boarding
school.
He chopped up their bodies and kept them in a barrel.
Riiiight.
8 - Krampus The Urban lend of the Krampus comes from central
Europe, most specifically Bavaria, Austria, Northern Italy, Slovenia and my favourite
tiny country – Lichtenstein.
You may have heard of the scary Krampus movie?
Well it is based on this legend.
Krampus is the total anti santa.
He is a half-goat, half demon and he is said to be a messenger for the devil.
At Christmas time he rears his literally very ugly head in order to punish bad kids who
misbehave.
How does he punish them?
With a severe beating.
With the worst of the kids, he is said to drown them or send them to hell.
Fun.
As I said, for me…tonight is Krampus night which means that people in North East Europe
will be out celebrating dressed like Krampuses.
The problem with the Krampus parades and celebrations are that often people get too carried away
and actually beat people while they are in character.
Scary on a mythical level and also a very real level.
7 - Hans Trap Hans Trapp is an anti sant like the Krampus
but he is more human like than the devil goat….although he is just as scary.
In Alsace and the Lorraine regions of France, Hans Trapp comes to visit over the holidays.
He is portrayed as a terrifying scarecrow who comes to terrify kids into good behaviour.
Legend has it that he was a real man – an evil man motivated by green.
He was said to wait in fields dressed as a scarecrow and pray on children.
It is said he was amid eating a young boy when he was struck by lightning and killed.
He still emerges each year to frighten bad kids, but these days he is said to only be
a ghost.
Only a ghost, that’s alright then!
6 - The Ghost Plate In the Ukraine people celebrate Christmas
on the 7th of January which is my birthday!
Hurrah!
So they have a lot of traditions that a lot of us who celebrate in West Europe and North
America may not have, a lot of which stem back into legends and religious beliefs.
In The Ukraine all kinds of things happen that you might not be familiar with – for
starters they lay hay underneath their table cloth to honour the manager and the stable
Jesus was born in.
One of the scariest legends that effects Christmas in the Ukraine is the Ghost Plate.
In the Ukraine it is tradition during Christmas dinner for revellers to leave a plate out
for a ghost.
This ghost is given an offering of honey and garlic which is supposed to bring good luck
for the family that year.
Imagine – dining with a ghost!
How terrifying.
5 - The Yule Lads So we talked about the terrifying Icelandic
Yule Cat in our Scary Christmas Urban Legends, but Iw anted to head back to Iceland in this
slightly different video and talk about the cats owner, the Yule Lads.
The Yule Lads are a bunch of 13 lads lads lads….
They are tricksters and are often depicted as creepy and forboding.
Among these scary looking men – who are like demented versions of the 7 Dwarves, there
are a number of food theifs, a sheep harasser, a character concerningly called Meat – Hook,
another called Window Pepper, one called Doorway Sniffer and …. Sausage Swiper.
Make of that what you will.
There is also one called Candle Stealer who stalks children.
It seems these creeps leave rotten potatoes on your shelf if you have been bad.
Not to mention their pet cat eats people.
Get outa here Yule Lads.
4 - Japan’s Icicle Woman In traditional Japanese culture they don’t
celebrate Christmas, they have a different holiday in December called Omisoka which is
a celebration of the last day of the year.
Other than that, the Japanese do get in the spirit and have plenty of wintry stories.
There is one particular legend that jumps out that is told over the holiday season.
The story goes that a man was looking for a wife and so far he couldn’t find anyone
suitable.
One day he was looking at the icicles that were hanging under the eve of his home and
he swooned.
Creepy.
He decided he wanted a woman as slender and beautiful as an icicle.
It seems he wished it, so it was so.
He found a woman who seemed to be the embodiment of an icicle – only he didn’t know that.
After a while he thought is was weird his wife never wanted to have a bath.
He made her have one day and she melted and died.
The end.
Thanks hubs.
I say the end, there is another version to this story that is just as scary – it involves
the woman disappearing in the Spring and her husband decided to marry someone else.
When she came back in the winter she was devastated and stabbed him through the heart with an
icicle.
3 - Fortune Telling in Russia The holiday period is a very mystic time in
Russia – which has historical roots in fortune telling.
It seems that over the holidays, people, mainly females, try to delve deeper into their futures.
Girls sit in front of the mirror with a candle Bloody Mary Style.
At midnight they look into the mirror and say ““My future husband, come to me to
have dinner” . The man is then said to appear in the mirror – when you see him you are
supposed to say get lost in case the spirit breaks free of the reflection realm and causes
havoc in your real life.
Sounds kinda spooky to me.
Also people burn paper on plates and look at the shadow it makes on the wall.
The shadows all have different means but if you get a crow, it is very bad luck indeed.
2 - The Death Candle Another legend from the Ukraine and in Eastern
Europe is of the Death Candle.
Eeek, doesn’t sound great does it.
So basically in homes in the Ukraine, a candle will be burned in the family home.
When the candle is eventually blown out – you have to pay really close attention to the
smoke.
If it goes upward, then this is a good sign and you can all breathe easily.
However if the smoke floats towards the window, it means that someone in the family will die
that year.
Right.
Honey doesn’t need that kind of omen.
1 The Hungry Pooping Log Is this scary or just plain bizarre?
Honestly I think, like, a bit of both?
On Christmas Eve, children and adults alike in Spain’s Cataln region get together and
whack a festive log that is supposed to poo out gifts and good fortune.
The tradition begins on the 8th December where families supposedly feed the log and then
cover it with a blanket to keep warm and comfortable.
They draw a smiley face on the log and then hit it with a stick as get sing.
The song, translated into English, goes: Poo log, poo nougats, hazelnuts and cheese, if
you don’t poo well we will hit you with a stick poo log.
Hitting a pooing log.
It
is so weird that I kind of love it.
Like – share…etc