In the past, in Shetlands, "skeklers", children dressed in straw suits, would go round the houses at Halloween (Gaelic new year), New Year, asking for food, apparently "to bring the sun back from the grip of winter and ensure good crops"...
Apparently, these "straw men" would also turn up at weddings...
Interestingly, exactly the same type of grain straw men exist in Ireland...There they parade on St. Stephen's day when they are called wren boys...I talked about them in my post "Wran or wren"...
But they also turn up at weddings...You can read more about the Irish wedding traditions on this great page about Irish weddings from askaboutireland.ie...
The whole thing is related to fertility. Just like in Slavic culture, here too female and earth fertility is directly linked, through the fact that the "grain sheafs appear at weddings and dance with a bride"...
I talked about this link in Slavic culture in many posts, here are just two: "Wheat wreath" and "Partridge"...
This is my favorite example of that link: In the past in Russia, after the last sheaf of grain was cut, women harvesters would lie down on the ground and roll around the field "to return the strength to the earth". Russian harvest custom which directly links female and earth fertility...
So, where else do "sheafs of wheat" or "straw men" walk among the people during the winter?
I'll start:
Walking sheafs of wheat are part of the Ķekatas masked men who wander the night on Ziemassvētki and Meteņi, "to seal away evil and bring good fortune and blessings"...
Walking wheat sheaf from Kuva region in Finland. The last day of Christmas...
Bears of wheat and peastraw, Empfingen, Baden-Württemberg. These are the so called "Straw bears", but really walking sheafs of wheat...
Schabmänner (brooms) or Rauhen from Styria (Štajerska), Austria, but really walking sheafs of wheat...
Buttmandl (bundled men) in the area around the Bavarian town of Berchtesgaden. Walking sheafs of wheat...With St Nicholas...Remember this, this is important...
A parallel to dancing "strawman"?
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There is also a folk creature in estonia called külmking(mr coldshoes) it would usually present in either one weft of hay or wheat, or an entire stack able to feed a whole herd, it had only one foot and hopped around, bringing disease and death to anyone it came in touch with, its powers weakiening after every person it encounters c: it's thought that witches made them, by tossing a piece of rotten dog meat into a whirlwind at midnight
ReplyDeleteThey also come in other forms, such as a black half human, half horse, headless
It had sharp dog claws, but way larger than your regular hound's
Its said in the winter the coldshoes could even be seen skiing, which i think is a funny think to imagine