When snow falls in Russia, they appear on the streets and in parks - snowmen. Big and small, with and without brooms - they have long been symbols of the New Year holidays. But how much do we know about the history of snowmen?
According to European legend, the knight Giovanni Bernardoni invented snowmen in the XII century - they are also Saint Francis of Assisi. According to the life of the saint, Francis, struggling with the demons that tempted him, began to sculpt snowmen and call them his wife and children. In the molding of a snowman, the prototype of the creation of man is guessed, only now the act of creation belongs to man himself.
In addition, snowmen with brooms - weapons were the guards of the dwelling, not letting evil spirits there. Also in the Nordic countries, people sculpted snowmen on the eve of Christmas and as traps for demons - an evil spirit that mistakenly took a snowman for a person, moved into a pile of snow and could no longer free himself until spring itself. Because of this, in Norway, snowmen began to be called "white trolls". There was a legend that they could not be looked at in the late evening because of the curtain in the window. But in Romania there is a custom to decorate a snowman with "beads" of garlic heads, as this promotes the health of households and protects them from vampires, ghouls, werewolves.
In Russia, they also sculpted both snowmen and snow women. Snowmen were revered as the spirits of winter, they, like Frost, were asked for help, mercy and a decrease in the duration of cold weather. Perhaps that is why the snowman is given a broom in the "hands" - so that he can safely fly into the sky whenever he pleases. There is a special story with snow women. Since in Russia they once believed that the air was inhabited by heavenly maidens who ruled over fogs, clouds, snows, the pagans organized solemn rituals in their honor. To appease the heavenly dwellers, they sculpted snow women, as if exalting the heavenly nymphs on earth.
Snowmen received their canonical appearance - a body made of three snow balls, a carrot nose, a bucket on their head - only in the 19th century. At the same time, the snow creatures "became kinder" and became an irreplaceable attribute of Christmas and New Year, a kind of symbol of the winter holidays. But before that, snowmen would hardly have seemed like good creatures to us. This is how they were presented at different times.
The first written mention of a snowman is found in the handwritten Book of Hours, created around 1380.
Promotional video:
Man sculpts a snowman. Detail of a fresco from Palazzo Publico in Siena, Italy. 1390s
People are making a snowman. Drawing from the Book of Hours, 1465.
1511 engraving.
Engraving from the atlas Petits Voyages. 1603 year. notice the yellow circle.
Illustration for the tale by G. Kh. Andersen "Snowman", engraving 1861.
Illustration for the children's book "Die Welt im Kleinen", 1867. This is the first image of a snowman with children. From that moment on, making snowmen became a popular children's winter fun.
Charles Green "Snowman", 1870s.
Pre-revolutionary postcard.
Fedot Sychkov "Molding a Snowman" 1910
1919: The image of a snowman is used in advertising.
In 1957, the Snowman first became the main character of a work of fiction - the Soviet cartoon "The Snowman-Mailer".
Postcard 1959