Olentzero is no ordinary old man that brings presents to kids on Christmas, he’s a charcoal burner that is also a Jentil, a giant in the Basque mythology.
He was originally a pagan, but some say he stayed behind and converted to chrisitanism when he saw Jesus about to be born, while the other jentilak escaped. Other less favorable interpretations say he converted and betrayed the rest of the jentilak, showing the people their locations so they could be killed.
All these are modern interpretations for Christmas because afaik originally he was supposed to be somewhat evil.
Source: am basque
He is also shown as a shepherd, although Jentils would naturally be shepherds I guess. Also another clarification, Gentile are not just giants, but ancestors of Basque people that did not descend from mountains and forests and thus didn’t get civilised and shrink.
Source: another Basque.
Hey, “Apalpador”? You’re gonna have to find a new thing. That’s not gonna fly anymore.
The note on the Low Countries says there’s no traditional Christmas gift-giver, but doesn’t Sinterklaas traditionally bring gifts on Sint Nicolasdaag?
Yes, but that’s a different holiday
Then the Ukrainian and Russians don’t count either
Chistmas starts at Holy Eve and ends on Epiphany, January 6th, so New Year’s Eve fits into that time frame.
Saint Nicolaus’ December 6th according to the Julian calendar is probably on December 19th according to Gregorian calendar, thus, this is a different holiday.
As a non christian, I’m talking about ‘the winter holiday where gifts are given’ which happens to be on slightly different dates depending on local traditions.
Basing the definition of what counts as ‘christmas’ on the church calendar isn’t very helpful in this global context where most people celebrating aren’t christian believers to begin with. And of course the christians borrowed from older traditions, which where also on different dates originally
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Tree trunk that defecates present
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Ummm…
Very funy, i have one of them. It represents the fertility of the soil.
Defecates is a bad word for that…
Unfortunately, defecating is exactly what it does. It’s not a euphemism. It is literally a pooping log!
