On January 18, children from all over the world celebrated Snowman Day. The same snow woman - from several balls of snow, placed on top of each other, with carrots for a nose and coals for eyes. Despite the fact that each of us at least once in his life sculpted this helper of Santa Claus from snow, almost no one knows the history of his appearance.
HOLIDAY WITH GERMAN ROOTS
The author of the holiday is considered to be Cornelius Gretz, a German who, over a long twenty-five years, has collected an amazing collection of 3,000 snowmen. When in one of the many interviews the collector was asked how he came up with the idea of such an original holiday, Cornelius replied that all over the world there are a huge number of days dedicated to a particular event or subject.
Have World Child Day, Book, Beer, Cat or even Toilet! Why not have World Snowman Day then? After all, he is really famous all over the world. When asked where his legendary collection of snowmen, which got into the Guinness Book of Records, came from, Cornelius Gretz said this.
As a child, when he was 13 years old, he received a little marzipan snowman as a gift. Despite the fact that the gift looked very appetizing, the boy did not eat it, but kept it as a keepsake. And that's how it all began. However, the collector did not go beyond the idea of the World Snowman Day. So everyone celebrates Snowman Day as they want. But, of course, the main competition is who blinds the biggest snow woman.
In Norway, snowmen are called white trolls.
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By the way, the tallest snowman in Europe lives on the slope of the famous Austrian ski resort in the city of Galtür. Its height is 16 meters 70 centimeters. At the same time, the largest in the world is considered to be a snow woman sculpted in 1999 in the USA with a height of 37 meters 20 centimeters out of 6 thousand tons of snow! In Moscow, snowmen lovers will undoubtedly be pleased with the annual Snowmen Parade competition held in Kuzminsky Park, the residence of Father Frost, during the winter. But he will be later. Because in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, February 28 is considered to be the Day of the Snowman.
NIGHTMARE
So how old is the snowman? Why and when did our ancestors fashion it for the first time? In fact, no matter how surprising it sounds, the first written mention of a snowman appeared not in Russia or Scandinavia, which would be quite logical, but in Germany at the end of the 18th century. Moreover, even the word "snowman" first appeared in the German transcription - schneeman. At the same time, one should not think that the first snowmen looked as good-natured as they are portrayed today. In those days, they were huge, ferocious creatures of ice and snow.
There is nothing surprising in this, since in the Middle Ages, snowmen personified powerful supernatural forces. For example, it was considered dangerous to make snowmen on a full moon. As if to a person who violated this prohibition, a snow woman, molded at the wrong time, will appear every night in nightmares and bring only failures. In Norway, it was strictly forbidden to look at a snowman after sunset, even through the window because of the lowered curtain.
Only closer to the middle of the 19th century, the "snowmen" "turned" to face the person and became faithful companions of Father Frost and the Snow Maiden. In one of the Christian legends, snowmen are God's angels, and the snow from which they are molded is a gift from heaven. It was believed that if you constantly repeat your innermost desire while making a snowman, then as soon as the snowman melts, it will immediately come true.
By the way, the unchanging nose-shaped carrot and the iron bucket on the snowman's head are by no means accidental. Carrots were inserted to appease the spirits of fertility so that the next year would be fruitful, and the bucket on the head symbolized prosperity in the house. In Romania, a country famous for the leprosy of evil spirits, a necklace of garlic heads is often added to the standard attributes of a snowman to scare away dark spirits from a person's dwelling.
RUSSIA VEDICHESKAYA
It is difficult to say when the first snowman was molded in Russia, it is only known that this event took place in Vedic times, long before the Christianization of the country. At that distant time, our ancestors believed that by sculpting snow women and giving them gifts, people appease the evil disposition of the spirits of winter. The Slavs were convinced that the winter forces of nature have a feminine essence, and it was not for nothing that they called them "blizzard", "blizzard", "drift". And only "frost" has always been masculine.
Accordingly, to communicate with female spirits, snow women were molded, which were commanded by Father Frost himself. It is not without reason that the expression "mother winter" and "Father Frost, father" have been used throughout the ages in Russia. In some areas of Tsarist Russia, the month of January was called a snowman! Some sources also claim that the Slavs believed in certain nymphs inhabiting the winter sky, who ruled over snow, fog and blizzard. To exalt them, on the one hand, and to express reverence, on the other, they sculpted snow women.
Sometimes there is even a completely wild version of the origin of the snowman. Her fans are sure that in antiquity, yeti, snowmen wandered in droves across Russia and stole small children. To get rid of this misfortune, our ancestors sculpted snowmen, designed to drive away real snowmen, like a garden scarecrow chases a crow in summer.
Dmitry LAVOCHKIN