Tag Archives: christmas customs

The Yulenissa

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Oregon
Performance Date: 04/21/2021
Primary Language: English

Context

The interviewee is one of my housemates and we often engage in conversation about his Danish heritage. This folklore is a myth that he continues to practice as part of a family tradition.

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Performance

The following is transcribed from the story told by the interviewee.

“On Christmas growing up, we have this thing called the Yulenissa, they are these gnome things in Scandinavia. Kind of these small creatures. So every Christmas they visit and we have to leave a bowl of porridge out before night. And in the morning, we would see their footprints outside the house and there will be this whole set-up of how they snuck in. There’s a string down the fireplace and you’ll see ashes of small footprints around the house or something like that. And the Yulenissa is this trickster that’s meant to do tricks and he’ll bring presents but he’s not meant to be Santa. He doesn’t do nice things, you’re meant to put the porridge out or he would trick you. My mom did this when she was growing up with her Danish Dad and so it became a thing that we did in the family.”

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Analysis

This story feels very familiar perhaps because it closely resembles the myth of Santa Claus. But unlike Santa Claus, the Yulenissa is known to be a trickster. Because the Yulenissa is a trickster, there are specific steps one must take in order to ensure that their family is kept safe, which is seen in putting the porridge out. On a personal level, I think the Yulenissa is important in upholding tradition. In this myth, there are consequences if the members of that culture do not uphold the tradition. This Danish tradition is seen to have been passed down from one member of the family to another, and the spirit of bringing the family together to thwart the trickster remains.

Family Christmas Traditions

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Residence: Trumbull, Connecticut
Performance Date: 04/20/2021
Primary Language: English

Main Text: 

Family Christmas Traditions 

Background on Informant: 

Currently a student, she grew up in an American household with heritage links to her Polish and Irish backgrounds. She has shared with me her many traditions and the folklore she has been exposed to through her experiences. 

Context: 

She explains:

“For Christmas every year, we have a small tradition. 

So on Christmas Eve, pre-COVID, we used to have the entire family gather, extended and all.

So we gather the presents together and they get handed out from oldest to youngest. We don’t open them but they sort of get complied into piles per person, which we’d open in the morning. I’m the youngest in my family and I’m 18 so we don’t do the Santa thing anymore unfortunately, so we know who got who what. 

Then we sit down for dinner and say grace. Grace? Grace died five years ago. We pray basically. Dinner is traditional Christmas food, maybe just for us, I’m not sure? But we eat roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, and vegetables, with small desserts after (it usually varies).

The funny thing is that we still leave out cookies for Santa, it’s a bit outdated for us but I think it’s cute, although my dad usually ends up eating them in the middle of the night. 

I think it’s a very American Christmas for us but I love it and don’t see much changing in terms of our customs any time soon. Although making Santa cookies will continue to crack me up.” 

Analysis/Thoughts: 

I love learning about people’s Christmas traditions and the importance of familial customs that always stand out. I grew up in an Eastern European household so our Christmas was accustomed to those traditions, so I always find it fascinating to learn about the ’American’ way of celebrating Christmas. 

I like how old-fashioned it is, with the traditional Christmas food customs and saying grace before dinner. I know the person I interviewed is not religious but they still adhere in order to continue the traditions. Christmas is so universal and because so many people celebrate it, it is always so interesting to see the variety and various ways it is enjoyed. Overall, I loved learning more about her traditions and always love finding out how Christmas customs are such an essential part of cultural identity. 

Mikulás Day

Nationality: Hungarian
Age: 45
Residence: Queens, New York
Performance Date: 04/13/2021
Primary Language: Hungarian
Language: English

Main Text: 

Mikulás Nap (Saint Nicholas Day) in Hungarian tradition is celebrated annually on December 6th. 

Background on Informant: 

She was born and raised in Hungary, but moved to the United States in 1997. She is knowledgable of her roots and has lots of wisdom to share about its’ cultural traditions. She grew up with the traditions of Mikulás Nap as a child and continued to practice it with her own children. 

Context: 

She explains: 

(Translated) 

“Mikulás is the Hungarian ’Santa Claus’ but it is also a reference to Saint Nicholas (Miklós or Mikulás). On every December 5th, children are told to put out shoes (boots usually) in front of their house, windows, or even in more modern times their rooms. 

Then by the next morning on December 6th, which is Mikulás Nap (Saint Nicholas Day), good children wake up to find chocolates, small toys, and sometimes even money in their shoes, while the bad children get “virgács” which is like twigs wrapped in red paper as their punishment (kind of looks like a small broom)— it’s supposed to be a reference to ‘Krampusz’ who is this devil-elf hybrid creature. But no one really ever gives their children it even if they deserve it. My mother always told me I would get it, but she never would, she got me the most delicious treats. 

No one really practices “virgács” anymore and ‘Krampusz’ is not associated with Hungarian Christmas culture anymore either. In more modern times, I usually use the American Christmas Stockings to place small chocolates and tiny presents for my children, and then the next celebration after this is our Christmas (‘Karácsony’) on December 24th.”

Analysis/Thoughts: 

I loved learning about the traditions of Mikulás Nap and understanding the origin of the holiday and how it has shifted from tradition customs to a more modern version. It’s interesting to see how Hungarian tradition as well as other Eastern European cultures have this precursor holiday ahead of Christmas. Having also grown up with practicing this mini-holiday in my own traditions, I learned a lot about ‘Krampusz’ who has played a large of role in the past, but has now become outdated in modern customs yet very much active in pop culture. I also had never heard of the “virgács” and assuringly most parents tend to treat their children with rewarding gifts rather than punishments on this day. 

As St. Nicholas is the patron saint of children, it is without a doubt that this ‘Father Christmas’ treats his children with blessings. I also love how this tradition hasn’t really spread far from Eastern Europe traditions and that it never caught on in the Western world as much as the other traditions such as ‘Santa Clause’ and Christmas as a whole. But overall, I was able to learn more about this tradition and the importance it continues to play in Hungarian culture, and its preservation that I would say will continue to last a long time. 

Annotations: 

For more information check out: 

https://search-proquest-com.libproxy2.usc.edu/legacydocview/EBC/1386985?accountid=14749

www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/j.ctt1pnktx.8 

Advent

Nationality: American
Age: 59
Occupation: Entrepreneur
Residence: Salt Lake City, UT
Performance Date: April 23, 2020
Primary Language: English
  • Context: The following informant, S, is a 59 yr. old man with three kids and a wife. Though the family does not identify as Christian, they celebrate Christmas and participate in the Christian tradition of Advent. This conversation took place when the informant was asked about any specific family traditions surrounding holidays. 
  • Text:

S: “So… for those who don’t know… Advent is a Christian celebration… uh… I think it’s tied in to the Twelve Days of Christmas too when you add it up, but I could be wrong… I don’t know about that… but, basically it’s the entire month of December it starts on December 1st and the day is December 25th… where you actually don’t get an advent… oh and each day you get a little… a little gift… sort of leading up to Christmas. But on Christmas day, you don’t get a little gift for Advent, you get your Christmas gifts. Um… and that… for me at least, started when I was… well as long as I can remember with my mom. And she would have an Advent calendar and we would open that up and… I think she had clues for us, if I’m not mistaken… and we would go find the little gift. It was was usually like a piece of chocolate for each of the three of us, I had two brothers… uh… nothing big… and maybe on the weekend a toy… but you know, nothing massive.

And that carried over when I first had, at least for me, I don’t know about my brothers, I’m sure it did, knowing my mom… but when I had my first kids, I started to get a box in November… from my mom… around Thanksgiving time… with all of the gifts and clues to go with them for the 24 days leading up to Christmas. So all I had to do was put the clues in the Advent calendar and run the process, and all my kids loved it… well of course my mom passes away a few years ago and… a couple years before that, I think actually, I started doing the clues myself and getting the gifts and what not.

Me: “What are the clues like?”

S: “Well, it’s a shame, I don’t remember what they were like as a kid. But what I do now… um… I either do a little sort of rhyming scheme sort of couplet thing… or I do a riddle… or I do something to do with the number of the day… umm or some combination of that stuff. Plays on words all the time ‘cus that’s sort of riddling. As [my kids] have gotten older I’ve tried to make it a little more challenging to figure out what it is and hidden them a little bit more… they used to be in plain sight way more often than they are now.”

Me: “And is it like each kid gets a clue or…?”

S: “One clue for the three [kids]. And [my kids] actually rotate, [they] decided to go youngest to oldest… uh [the youngest] does the first, [the middle] does the second, [the oldest] does the third and then [they] rotate through. Uhh…”

Me: “Reading the clues?”

S: “Reading the clues out loud. And then everybody… well it depends what kind of mood people are in… some days [my kids] decide to sit and not participate and sulk, but most days all three of [my kids] go and look, and of course mom, when she figures out the clue, can’t hold herself back and has to yell out where it is ‘cus she’s so proud of herself for figuring it out.”

  • Analysis: This version of Advent is similar to other versions I have heard of. Mainly, I have heard of pre-made Advent calendars with chocolates or small gifts inside each day. The main difference between this version of Advent and others is the addition of clues and hiding the presents. This type of Advent is more of a game, that includes riddles and rhyme schemes that lead to the hidden presents. This is the Advent I grew up knowing, and until I began to go over to my friends houses around the holidays I was unaware that Advent was not a game in all other households as well.

Czechoslovakian Christmas Chimney

Nationality: American
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Ohio
Performance Date: April 12th, 2019
Primary Language: English

The following Czechoslovakian Christmas tradition was performed in the USC Village on April 12th, 2019. Every Christmas eve, while the informant’s family eats dinner “there’s like this little wooden box that’s open at the top and decorated to look like a chimney, and we call it ‘the chimney.'”  Everyone has a ribbon with their name on it and “you pull your little gift out of the open chimney and it’s your first Christmas present of the year.” Gifts include items like notebooks, pencils, and “little treats to get excited for Christmas”. 

The chimney came from their Czechoslovakian neighbors (the Kysela family) who are “our best family friends and that started with their great grandma. They had done the chimney forever, was always a tradition of theirs and because we’re so close they made us a chimney.” This Christmas tradition combines the tradition of opening one gift the night before and the lore of Santa coming down from the chimney.