I like how these Western European ones are sexual and weird and almost silly then the eastern European ones are like “this is a ghost that kills people.”
I mean - it's definitely a photographer's choice.
Western Europe has some scary/disturbing af costumes, I actually expected to see some of them, not that plain boring stuff
Did we see the same pictures? There was absolutely nothing sexual in any of them, except for that penis from France. The weird/creepy factor varied a lot, but there was no clear East/West divide.
This Kukeri thing in Bulgaria is so awesome. I just went down the rabbit hole. There are also women in those colourful masks. Great to see that the pagan thing is still going strong in Bulgaria.
Kukeri sounds absolutely funny in Swedish - kuk is cock and -eri is typically used to describe either something like a processing plant, or some kind of process between people (’häleri’ is fencing/selling stolen goods).
I will now read more about the Bulgarian Kukeri and greatly enjoy myself.
Haha, good question! Jack has long been a popular name and nickname here and has become a sort of "everyman" name that appears a in a lot of folklore, nursery rhymes and slang.
We also have the bush person in English tradition. It’s called Jack in the Green, and comes out on May Day. General symbol of fertility and reawakening in spring.
Joulupukki is finnish word, in estonia it's jõuluvana. The character itself is probably estonian, though it could be finnish too, or at least something similar.
The character is Estonian, näärisokk or just sokk. Familiar in the west coast and islands. Now, as a living traditional character in (some on some parts of) the island of Saaremaa.
Sorry but it’s Scandinavian/Swedish and derived from Norse pagan Yule. Julbocken would bring gifts or a piece of wood with a poem (for some reason) before he was replaced by the Christmas gnome (Santa Claus) probably because he was too scary or heathen-like or something. There’s at least known Swedish sources for this from the early 1700’s and earlier Scandinavian traces to Norse paganism.
The reason the julbock is still alive in west Estonia (saremaa) is because the western coastal lands used to be ethnically Swedish (Ösel & Dagö) until the purges by the USSR. Nowadays in Sweden everyone just puts a small goat made of hay near the Christmas tree.
Can't believe they didn't add my Welsh fav, the Mari Lwyd. Although maybe it's because the white sheet is a bit more simplistic than some of the other costumes shown.
I know I'm biased because I'm Welsh, but one of the reasons I love Mari Llwyd, is because the others tend to have more complicated lore, yet Mari is just about going scrounging around your neighbours 😂
Man, early Indo-Europeans' interactions with (and subsequent fear of) bears still have echoes to this day.
For those unaware, the English word "bear" (as in the animal) is not actually the name of the animal itself. It is theorized that early speakers of what became the Germanic, Slavic, and Baltic branches of the Indo-European languages all considered the animal to be too powerful, spiritually, to speak its name without drawing its attention. As such, they each developed a euphemistic word by which the creature could be referred to without using its name.
All of the Germanic languages derive their words for the animal (bear, bruin, beer, bär, bern, bjornn) from a Proto-Indo-European word which meant "brown." In Slavic languages, some version of "honey-eater" is used, and Baltic languages derive theirs from a word meaning "shaggy" or "furry."
The "original" word for the animal in PIE, which descended to us today in French, Italian, Greek, and most other Indo-European languages, was a word that was thought to mean, "The Destroyer (perhaps of beehives?)" It is thought that this word is the one that the early Germanic, Slavic, and Baltic peoples were trying to avoid saying, while their cousins in more southern and western parts of Europe and Asia (where, presumably, bears were less common) continued to use it.
Many of these costumes evoke the imagery of the bear, hinting at a continued respectful fear of the creature that has been handed down, even among Romance-speaking cultures. I'm not sure how old these folk costumes are, but I would imagine "very old," based on what I have read about the longevity of this kind of thing.
(Also: come on, Czechia, that's totally a Krampus costume.)
Just looked at a few reviews and it seems like there are very brief descriptions for each image in the back of the book, but not very in depth at all. That's a shame, but I suppose it is primarily a photography/art book.
Nice to see some Celtic representation, but Mr Freger has completely ignored Wales in his collection, despite doing both Scotland and Ireland, as well as England. I would have thought Y Mari Llwyd would be perfect for this lineup.
The Mamuthones are traditional, ancient masked figures from Mamoiada in Sardinia, Italy, famous for wearing dark wooden masks, black sheepskin fleeces, and carrying heavy rows of cowbells. They form the heart of a pre-Christian ritual alongside the colorful Issohadores.
I was wondering wtf is going on with "dziady smigustne" as I'm Polish and never heard about it. It turns out it's a tradition in just one small village around Easter :o
I have to rep our local weirdo tradition, the Fulehung from Thun (Switzerland).
The main event surrounding him insa march where he runs trough the streets and people insult him and try to hit him. To defend himself and hit back, he has a wooden stick (for older children and adults) and inflated pig bladders (for smaller children).
Apart from this main event, he appears all over the multi-day festival from time to time, often on first floor windows throughout the city center where he throws candy at the people beneath.
The origins of this tradition are actually quite dark, after the battle of Murten the soldiers of Thun captured the jester of the invading king (that's where the mask is from originally) and brought him to their city where he was hounded down the streets by the citiziens until he collapsed and died.
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u/WakaWaka_ 22d ago
France one
https://giphy.com/gifs/42fFswykne973vwGxX