The Nisse
In Scandinavia Santa Claus is kind of an immigrant. Even though he looks like it on the images he does not carry that much weight. Nisser on the other hand are everywhere.
If you should explain to an Englishman what a nisse is, you would sometimes say that a nisse is like a gnome. But there are no gnomes in Scandinavia. Gnomes are creatures of the modern romanticism (as is the lithography below), while a nisse (or sometimes tompte in Swedish) is an ancient creature living in the houses helping out or not helping according to the sacrifices he gets. I think I read that the Nisse is like the Goblin in England, but that the puritan Brits made the Goblin into something demonic, while the Nisse just stayed the homely though unpredictable pagan house-god in Scandinavia.
I had a Brit asking if the nisse was something like the house elves in Harry Potter, but this is not the case. The house elves in Harry Potter are servants, while the nisse is never a servant. On the contrary. People are supposed to keep the nisse happy with offerings of food, beer and other goodies. Else he tend to be nasty. So especially when it is JUL (Christmas) the nisse needs attention and it is custom to put rice porridge and beer on the attic for him. I have known quite a few Muslim kids committing the terrible sin of shirk sacrificing rice-porridge to the nisse in Kindergarten.
You might read some more about the Nisse on wikipedia
Did you know about Joulupukki, Yule Bock, Julbock or Yule Goat? That's perhaps the earliest form of scandinavian "santa claus" there is. I'm almost inclined to believe most of the characteristics of santa claus were based on this ancient goat sacrifice tradition that later begat wondering yule goats who went from house to house scaring the living daylights out of people so they'd give them gifts to leave their families alone.
Or at least that's how it could have been. I'm not sure if anyone was really scared of the yule bock, it was just a tradition after all. Interesting and fun to read about it though. :)
Yes, I do know about it :) I just thought it would be to harsh with a horned God. I have had some satanic anxiety on Diaspora lately because of this... With all the Americans here on Steemit I found it best to underplay the Joulupukki.
But you can see it on this drawing. together with ravens, nisser, pork, puke and much more :) Glædelig jul!
Those crazy americans and their religious symbolisms. ;)
Hyvää Joulua! :)
this is fascinating, katharisdrill - thank you for posting this - can't believe I haven't been following you, but I am now :)
Sometimes I find old profiles that are completely new to me. I think it comes with the decentralised nature of this kind of websites. I have experienced the same thing on Diaspora - the free anarchist social network that I have been using the last three years.
I think you're right - diaspora as in the scattering of the jews?
Sorry, that was maybe not clear. Disapora is, when it is not a scattering of people, also a social network like Facebook or Steemit. It is decentralised so everybody can make their own server running it. So there is no censorship, you can be anonymous, and the community is very privacy-aware. It is not that big 400.000 - 500.000 active users mainly Europeans, but also a fair share from other places.
okay ...Cool!
Ah , Some Tomte
Tomte and nisse is the same thing. In Sweden you also use the name tomte, that means a place or site where humans are living (a byggetomt mean a construction site in Danish). So nisse and tomte is the same in Swedish, and you can even say tomtenisse. There is the nuance that the nisse is often, in Sweden, seen as subordinated (and younger than) the Tomte. The Swedes also call Santa Claus: Jultompten (Christmas tomte). Whereas he in Danmark and Norway simply is called the Christmas man and in Finland: the Christmas goat! Some severe paganism has always been going on in Scandinavia :)