"Hello Dedushka Moroz. Have you brought us presents? " Of course, the kind Grandfather Frost will not leave children without gifts. But this is now, and once, a long time ago …
Celtic Elder
We think everyone will agree that in a fierce winter, in a forest, without warmth and light, "Santa Claus" will not seem kind and affectionate to anyone. Rather, the opposite is true. So our ancestors thought so, and quite rightly.
For example, the Elder of the North of the ancient Celts was cruel and unforgiving. If he was not satisfied with the number of sacrifices over the past 365 days, then on New Year's Eve a gloomy old man in a thick fur coat made of snow and with a beard made of icicles (a familiar image, isn't it?) shoulders. But there were no gifts in this bag - it was empty. It should have been filled by those who forgot to make a sacrifice before the deadline. Having received his, the Elder left the house, leaving behind him for the edification of others the frozen corpses of its inhabitants. For a long time, people have a custom: on New Year's Eve, to distribute all their debts.
In order to divert the wrath of the evil deity from themselves, people prepared gifts for him in advance: having found a mighty green spruce in a deep forest, they hung it with the insides of sacrificial animals. It was believed that the spruce, unlike other trees, is under the special patronage of the Elder of the North, and therefore always remains green. Perhaps the custom of bringing a felled spruce into the house arose in connection with the desire to extend this patronage to those who live in it.
Later, the intestines of animals were transformed into garlands, and the rest of the body and entrails into balls and toys. But this happened much later.
If the winter turned out to be too cold, it meant that the Elder was unhappy and required additional tribute. Then people went to extreme measures: on a frosty night, they tied the most beautiful girl of the tribe to the food. If by morning it turned into an ice statue (and this happened most often), it means that the old man accepted the sacrifice, and the winter will not be so cruel. The young virgin, given to the ice deity, later became the prototype of the Snow Maiden.
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Slavic "grandfathers"
The ancient Slavs "Santa Claus" had already three. This is Pozvizd (Posvist, Whirlwind) - the god of storms, hails and snowfalls, a fierce inhabitant of distant mountains; Zimnik - an old man dressed in a long fur coat with an iron staff in his hand. Where he stepped, a terrible frost began. And Karachun is a deity capable of taking the life of a mortal in passing, the master of the underworld of the dead and, like Zimnik, responsible for the fierce cold. All of them demanded sacrifices and all were insatiable, as evidenced by the many people who froze every winter.
Now these nightmares are in the distant past, and we joyfully greet Santa Claus with a huge (still red) bag over his shoulders. The bag contains candies, toys and many other gifts. But we should not forget that this kind grandfather is only when he is our guest. As soon as we get to visit him - without the appropriate equipment - and the Elder of the North will quickly make us remember the time when people went to bow to "Santa Claus", carried terrible gifts with them, but at the same time they did not always return home alive and healthy …