The Folklore Society’s Advent Calendar 2024

Part 2, December 9th to 14th: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-societys-advent-calendar-24-part-2/

Part 3, December 15th to 21st: https://folklore-society.com/blog-post/the-folklore-societys-advent-calendar-2024-part-3/

8th December

Whitby Krampus Run, day 2: the event celebrates its 10th birthday, and Whitby resident, our own dear Doc Rowe celebrates his 80th; here’s one of his photos of the Krampus Run below.

And here’s a BBC News report re last year’s event: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-york-north-yorkshire-67600542

Krampus- and Perchtenlaufen (processions of shaggy-clad, horned and masked figures making a huge noise), are old traditions in the Tyrol: https://www.tyrol.com/blog/b-arts-culture/teufel-krampusse-and-perchten-in-tirol

Whitby is one of many places where similar events have emerged in recent years and are becoming increasingly popular traditions–a 2016 Facebook video of the Seidä Pass Krampus Club in Rattenberg has been viewed 8 million times: https://www.facebook.com/seidaepass/videos/1801550826752905

7th December

Sheffield and Derbyshire village carols: listen to our own dear Prof. Ian Russell’s 2021 Katharine Briggs Lecture ‘”Peace O’er the World”: Christmas Carolling in the Hope Valley,’ here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=seZvovrB7Gs

Here’s Ian speaking at the 2022 festival of village carols at Grenoside: https://youtu.be/BquudzmcwsQ?

This year’s sing at Grenoside is Sat 7 Dec. For other venues and dates of 2024 Sheffield/Derbyshire sings, visit: http://www.localcarols.org.uk/sings.php

And here’s some village carol singing from the Blue Ball at Worrall in 2011: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGsDbvdOAsU

6th December

Saint Nicholas’ Day: Sing along with Lucienne Vernay’s 1958 recording of ‘La Légende de St Nicolas’ (1958), a French children’s song about the saint resurrecting 3 boys who were chopped up and pickled in brine for 7 years by a wicked butcher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tdnzl0EsGo

For the lyrics, English translation and more about the song, visit https://frenchmoments.eu/la-legende-de-saint-nicolas/#t-1673875069601

Read more about the St Nicolas legends, and view photos of the legends in amazing stained glass in Bourges Cathedral, at: https://www.stnicholascenter.org/who-is-st-nicholas/stories-legends/image-cycles/medieval-glass-2

5th December

Sinterklaasavond (Saint Nicholas’ Eve): Put your shoes out in front of the fire in the evening and sing a Sinterklaas song. If he can hear you from the Netherlands, you’ll find sweets in your shoes in the morning. Here’s the tune, lyrics and English translation of ‘Sinterklaas kapoentje’: https://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=3131.

Read about Sinterklaas traditions, and controversies, at https://meertens.knaw.nl/archive/sinterklaas/

4th December

Make your own Christingle: Canon Ned Lunn of Bradford Cathedral shows how (and his Xmas jumper is very nice too): https://youtu.be/lfee4rtYAmo?

And attend a Christingle service, eg St Albans Cathedral on 15 December: https://www.stalbanscathedral.org/Event/christingle2024, or on other dates in many other churches throughout the UK.

3rd December: 

Letters to Santa Claus: Write a letter to Santa Claus and don’t forget to put it on the fire to send the message up the chimney.

And attend Ceri Houlbrook’s lectures on the history and folklore of letters to Santa: 

— 4th December, online, for The Last Tuesday Society:  https://thelasttuesdaysociety.org/event/dear-father-christmas-tracing-the-history-of-a-folkloric-custom-dr-ceri-houlbrook/ and

— 19 December, in person, at The Portico Library, Manchester: https://www.theportico.org.uk/event-calendar/the-santa-archives-from-academic-research-to-novel-writing

2nd December: 

Mistletoe: our mistletoe logo – a nod to James Frazer’s Golden Bough – has been used on Folklore Society publications since the 1950s. The first image here shows the logo on the cover of the 1976 volume of Folklore. The mistletoe logo was redesigned by Doc Rowe in the 1980s to represent the letters FS, but Doc says: ‘This is not the logo that I designed. In fact, this is the crude adjusted printers’ version of the early one that led to the committee at the time to ask for a redesign…. We do have an anniversary coming up – maybe we might look at the image again.’

On the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe, see https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-mistletoe-became-christmas-kissing-tradition-180985450/.

1st December: 

Calennigs: Make your own calennig. A traditional Welsh New Year custom, the calennig is carried from door to door as a bearer of good luck. Calennig means ‘New Year’s gift’ in Welsh, and derives from the Latin calendae, meaning ‘first day of the month’. https://museum.wales/articles/1188/New-Year-Traditions-Collecting-Calennig/.