Welcome to the month of Yule! for this month I’ll be covering nothing but Yule traditions and folklore. I practically rubbed my hands together in fiendish delight about the idea of covering pagan traditions and stories.
One that caught my eye was the Yule Cat. There isn’t a lot about this particular folklore only that there was a story about a monstrous beast that would come and eat you if you didn’t receive or get new clothes. Oh yeah, the title is pretty much self explanatory well, more of straight to the point. Evidently the Yule Cat, whom is said to be big as large homes, stalks the streets on Christmas Eve nights in search of children that don’t have new clothes for Christmas. If any child is found not to have new clothes they were gobbled down without remorse.
NOW, at first I thought what a dapper hungry fashion beast! But my face went from the look of mock disgust to realization, I did that every Christmas Eve. Infact, my family did that with me and my sister for as long as I could remember. Every Christmas Eve, we opened a single gift on Christmas Eve, normal, right? That’s a shelfer, nothing cooky or out of the norm there. But here is the kicker, we got new clothes. Every year was a new pair of pajamas. I was dumbfounded.
Like, wait …my family has been following a German folklore tradition?! And unbeknownst to me I hunky-dory it as the norm? Mind instantly blown where Yule Cat and our family tradition runs parallel. I do have Germanic background, but other than the new clothes aka pjs and German potato salad the buck stops there. I’m sure if I did, I’d find more parallels.
Now, it’s said the birth of the Yule Cat was to make sure the farmers made sure the yarn was done so that clothes could be made or they wouldn’t get paid, kind of a shit move don’t you think? Pushing people who work from sun up to sun down and then, feeding them this tale of, if you don’t do this your kids get eaten by the biggest feral feline known to man.
Side note, who wouldn’t want a giant cat coming cruising your house, as long as you have new clothes of course. Who wouldn’t want a giant cat if not ride it through a cold winter’s night, that’s a hint. One last tidbit of persnickety Yule Cat known as Jólakötturinn, doesn’t hunt alone, he prowls the streets with a troll ogress, but that is a story for another day.
Until Then, Keep On Brewin!