You Better Watch Out!: The Monsters of Yuletide
December 18, 2024
by Kamden Cornell, our head herbalist and owner of Heart & Vine Apothecary
One of my favorite things about this time of year is the Scandinavian and Germanic folklore surrounding the monsters of the Yuletide holidays and their associated festivities, some of which are surprisingly similar to the Matachines dances as found here in New Mexico. Both feature a little girl dressed in white, representing innocence, as well as someone dressed up as a horned, bestial spirit of sin.
Lussi- St. Lucia has an interesting connection to Yule and to Christmas because, due to the gross inaccuracy of the Julian calendar used during the Middle Ages, her feast day, December 13th, coincided with the Winter Solstice. As such, her feast fell on the longest night, and was celebrated with fires, burning candles, and processions meant to bring light to the darkness, which often include a young girl dressed in white, wearing a red sash at her waist and a crown of candles on her head. As mentioned earlier, in the Matachines dances, there is a young girl dressed in white and red in the role known as la Malinche, who represents innocence and the absolution of sin through conversion to Catholicism. I mention it because it offers a very interesting correlation between Scandinavian customs and our own here in New Mexico!
However, there is a shadow side to St. Lucia and her tale, which comes into play as the wicked sorceress Lussi, who prowls the night on Lussinatta (the long night of the 13th) to punish those whose houses are not clean and are not safe in bed before the sun sets and her wild horde of spirits, known as Lussiferda, roam the streets. One way to evade them is to toss a cookie over your shoulder if you hear the Wild Hunt behind you, but you must never turn to look or the Lussiferda will eat you up! This is also a night when it is said that animals gain the power of speech, but to overhear their conversations may bring bad luck or even death.
Frau Perchta- Very similar to Lussi is the other Christmas Witch known as Perchta and, as with the Lucy/Lussi dichotomy, Perchta has two halves. Her name means “shining” or possibly “hidden”, and she may take on a light or dark aspect all her own and reveal herself as a beautiful woman in white, or a haggard old witch with one foot like that of a goose. Perchta does not show up until after Christmas, as her particular night is Twelfth Night, usually January 5th or 6th, also known as Epiphany Eve. Perchta is a spirit associated with animal tending and spinning, so, if the animals are not safely put to bed and well fed and if all the spinning is not done before Yuletide (and if you have eaten something other than fish and gruel on Twelfth Night), she may just slit open your belly, remove your guts, and stuff you full of straw and stones!
Grýla - The other Yuletide witch comes from Iceland and is known as the Ogress Grýla, a cunning sorceress and mother to the Yule Lads. She is another figure associated with the Twelve Nights of Christmas and with Twelfth night, as she wanders between towns during that period asking for charity. She punishes those who deny her by stealing away their naughty children and putting them in her supper pot! Her children, the Yule Lads, also come down from their mountain home one by one (never two by two) and cause chaos and havoc during this time and may bring along the family pet, the Yule Cat (Jólakötturinn), who is an enormous feline that devours anyone who has not received new clothes before Christmas Eve. Grýla has recently become popular again due to appearances on the Midwinter episode of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina the Teenage Witch and the new film, Red One, where she plays the primary antagonist.
Krampus- No list of Yuletide beasties would be complete without the most famous of them all. Krampus is the horned, fork-tongued monstrous companion who accompanies St. Nicholas and punishes naughty children by smacking them with a scourge of birch sticks, but may throw the particularly unforgivable children into a cage on his back to be carted back to his lair to be eaten or carried down to Hell on Christmas Eve. His special night, Krampusnacht, is December 5th, the night before the Feast of St. Nicholas, and children throughout the Germanic world know to listen for the sounds of his heavy chains, his mournful bells, and the click-clack of his cloven hooved feet outside their doors.
Every year there is a parade through the streets of European towns where people dress as Krampus, a festival known as Krampuslauf (Krampus Run). These festivities can be somewhat dangerous, but they do seem to be quite a lot of fun, too. Again we see a parallel to our own Matachines dances, in that Krampus is very much like our El Toro, the horned representation of the Devil and sin.
Just to bring it back to herbs for a second, any and all of these creatures can be protected against by burning juniper or pine wood in your hearth during the Twelve Nights of Christmas, especially on Christmas Eve and Twelfth Night. Alternatively, you can use Juniper, Pine, or Piñon resin incense like those sold by Dryland Wilds, Incienso de Santa Fe, and Brenda’s Botanicals in Taos. You can also protect yourself by wearing essential oil of Juniper, which we sell right here in our shop! Other options are wearing shoes with the soles sewn on backwards to confuse the Yule spirits, wearing crossed pins in your hat, leaving treats to appease the spirits, and by just being merry for the holidays!
¡Felices Fiestas, Burqueños!