Anthropology of Christmas as a pagan holiday of the Slavs Kolyada and worship of the winter spirit 'Morozko'

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The ancient pagan nativity scene of the pagan gods of Europe was blasphemously designated as the birth of the Lord of Heaven and Earth, Jesus Christ. This was done with the sole purpose of irritating the Almighty. The day of His birth is not specified in Scripture. In the 2nd century, the Gnostics initially celebrated January 6 as the day of Theophany.

Among the Slavs (as among other European pagans), the sun-god changed four times a year on the days of the equinoxes, solstices, and sun turns. It was precisely on the days of “Christ’s Nativity” (the fact is that no one knows the exact date of the Savior’s birth) that the death phase of the old solar god Svetovit occurred, and the birth of the “infant” — the god Kolyada — the deity of the beginning of new life, the patron of peace treaties. The feast of Kolyada was also called Svyatki (Yuletide). On Kolyada it was customary to carol — to glorify the sun-god. Now carols are dedicated to Christ. The days of Kolyada began on the 21st of Studen (Gruden, December) and ended in the middle of winter (February 11). The Slavic pagans celebrated the birth of the new sun Kolyada merrily, with plenty of food, and without fail gave each other gifts in order to cement friendship and mutual assistance from the beginning of the new sun, they cast spells, caroled, told fortunes and learned their fate. Working during the Kolyada days was strictly forbidden and considered a bad omen. An obligatory condition of caroling was disguising or masquerading as hares, wolves, foxes, bears. The tradition of dressing up during Kolyada days is ancient and also existed in Ancient Egypt, Scandinavia, India, and the Roman Empire. In the Roman Empire, these days were called “Days of the Sun.”

And what of the pagan blasphemy about the Kolyada trinity: Grandfather Frost (god the father), Snowman (god the son), and Snow Maiden (goddess granddaughter). Such theories were greatly developed by the recently deceased magus Levashov.

Bloodthirsty Grandfather Frost and the Sacrifice Snow Maiden

From 1927 to 1935, the Soviet authorities banned the holding of Christmas and New Year celebrations. At that time, it was believed that “Only he who is a friend of priests is ready to celebrate the fir tree!” New Year with its essential attributes — a decorated fir tree, Grandfather Frost, and the Snow Maiden — was not always a holiday of happiness, renewal, and faith in miracles.

The European, Celtic “god” the Great Grandfather of the North

Among the early Celts, the fir tree was considered the abode of a forest spirit that required bloody sacrifices — the entrails of humans and animals, which druids regularly hung on the branches of the tree. When the state-established Christian church forbade sacrifices, the peoples of Europe replaced the internal organs with wooden balls, which later became glass, and the intestines — with cloth and paper garlands.

The essence of Santa Claus (Saint Nicholas) comes from the depths of Europe’s pagan centuries from the ancient and wicked Celtic deity, the Great Grandfather of the North, the master of icy cold and blizzards. He went from house to house with a canvas sack, but he did not give out gifts; rather, he collected the sacrifices that had not been given to him during the year. The visit of the Grandfather of the North with a sack did not bode well: as a rule, after his departure, only ice-covered corpses remained in the house. In order to protect the settlement from this terrible visit, the druids offered a communal sacrifice to the fierce deity — they stripped a young virgin and tied her to a tree in the freezing cold. Perhaps it was her frozen, frost-covered corpse that became the prototype of the cheerful Snow Maiden who accompanies Grandfather Frost…

The Old Russian Pagan “God” Morozko

In the image familiar to us, the kind and pleasant old man Grandfather Frost appeared only in 1840, in the story “Moroz Ivanovich” by Prince and writer Vladimir Odoevsky. This was a literary adaptation of the Russian folk tale “Morozko.” The Russian tale describes Morozko as an unkind old man, practically identical to the early Celtic Great Old Man of the North, who froze to death the lazy girl whom he disliked (in the softened version by writer Odoevsky, the lazy girl receives not death, but merely a necklace of icicles).

The Russian people also imagined the evil spirit Morozko as an old man who, with his staff, controlled the demise of all living things. At the winter solstices, this demon-grandfather had to be propitiated. They appeased him with the same young virgin, whom they tied to a tree (not necessarily a fir) and left to freeze in the wild cold. If she froze within a day, it meant the sacrifice was accepted. And the sack of the modern Grandfather Frost in the times of the pagan cult of Morozko was intended for collecting offerings. And with his staff, the vile old man would beat disobedient children or frighten them with terrifying tales. According to legends, Grandfather was married to Spring…

The Ritual Holiday of New Year

The New Year holiday was first celebrated in ancient Babylon. It was timed to coincide with the renewal of nature in early spring. Also, the ancient Hebrew New Year according to the Law of Moses begins with the month of “Aviv” (i.e., “ears of grain”), which corresponds to our March and April. Among the ancient Romans, the New Year began in March, until the calendar reform in 45 BC by Julius Caesar. In Ancient Egypt, the New Year was celebrated during the flooding of the Nile at the end of modern September. But it was precisely then that the main rebirth occurred in those places, because only thanks to the great river did grain and other plants grow in the dry desert. Also, the modern Jewish New Year falls in modern September.

The tradition of giving gifts at Christmas, and in the Soviet period at New Year, came to Russia from Western Europe in the mid-19th century, but Nicholas the Wonderworker did not immediately establish himself in the role of gift-giver. Only by the 1880s did the fir tree and the sack of gifts become strongly associated with the image of the old man. True, he was not yet called Grandfather Frost: he was a “Yuletide old man,” “Christmas or fir-tree grandfather,” and Saint Nicholas the Pleasant.

In Ukraine, in accordance with the tradition of the Christian church, which was under the influence of Catholic Poland and Lithuania, the image of the Christmas old man Saint Mykolai (Nicholas) was widespread.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Grandfather finally became kind thanks to the well-known children’s song about the little fir tree, written by the poetess Raisa Kudasheva in 1903. And only from 1910 did he begin to appear live at the fir tree as the universally recognizable image of an entertainer and master of ceremonies, with rosy cheeks and a cotton-wool beard.

The Cult of the Virgin Snow Maiden

Only in 1873, thanks to Alexander Ostrovsky’s famous play The Snow Maiden, did Ded Moroz—Morozko—acquire a young helper: a daughter, whom writers and poets later “re‑fashioned” into a granddaughter. Apparently for physiological‑moral reasons: it wouldn’t do for a grandfather of his age to have such a young daughter. A granddaughter, on the other hand, was quite acceptable.

After the aforementioned “revolutionary hole” of 1927–1935, Snegurochka vanished altogether for a long time. As Ded Moroz’s permanent companion she was revived only in the early 1950s, once again through the efforts of writers—the Soviet children’s classics Lev Kassil and Sergei Mikhalkov. True, over the previous century the granddaughter‑daughter’s appearance had changed dramatically: from a sexless, chilly figure she turned into a curvaceous blonde. From then on she took over the New Year’s ritual, which the American and Western European Santa Claus manages by himself.

Some researchers have linked Snegurochka’s popularity in the USSR with the national custom of getting Ded Moroz—red‑nosed—drunk: going from house to house to deliver presents, unlike the American Santa Claus or Jack Frost, he quickly gets tipsy and therefore needs a helper. There is a counter‑espionage joke‑omen: if you see a sober Ded Moroz, that’s a Santa Claus.

And yet where did this companion of our Ded Moroz come from? Besides the literary version, from Ostrovsky’s eponymous work, there is a folk one. The childless old couple Ivan and Marya fashioned her out of snow. They made her for their own joy but could not keep her safe. According to the tale, the silly young girl jumped over a bonfire and melted. According to more reliable data, she was born of the Great Fir (fir, as with the Celts). So the beautiful virgin did not freeze at all—she was born! A bright maiden suddenly appeared from under a fluffy fir branch—which echoes the myth of Aphrodite’s birth from the sea foam—and was greeted with stormy cheers by all the forest dwellers.

On the night of December 24–25, Catholics and Protestants around the world celebrate Christmas.

The main modern symbol of Christmas is Santa Claus, usually portrayed as a plump, kindly old man with glasses and a white beard, dressed in a warm red jacket, matching trousers, and a cap. Yet the historical prototype of this character—St. Nicholas the Wonderworker—bore little resemblance to the present‑day Santa.

Nicholas the Wonderworker

One of the most venerated saints in the Christian world. He is regarded as the defender of ordinary people, patron of seafaring, trade, and farming, as well as guardian of the poor and orphans. According to his life, Saint Nicholas was born in the 3rd century AD in the Greek colony of Patara in the Roman province of Lycia (in the territory of today’s Antalya Province, Turkey). He gained renown as Archbishop of Myra in Lycia (Byzantium), in particular through his charity, his defense of the unjustly condemned, and his many deeds and miracles.

The face of Archbishop Nicholas was reconstructed by a team of British anthropologists and Italian scientists from the relics kept in the Basilica of St. Nicholas in Bari. “The real Santa Claus was 170 cm tall, with sharp features, made even more severe by a broken nose. His skin was swarthy, his hair short‑cropped and tangled, his beard bushy. A large, intimidating‑looking man,” the researchers said.

According to legend, Archbishop Nicholas would toss small sacks of gold coins down the chimneys of poor girls who were old enough to marry but had no dowry. The tradition of giving gifts on this day dates back to the 10th century, when on December 6th sweets were distributed to pupils of the parish school at Cologne Cathedral. Later in Germany, shoes or stockings were hung in homes so that St. Nicholas could leave presents for the children.

The mass‑reproduced image of Santa Claus that we know today began to take shape at the end of the 18th / beginning of the 19th century. At the same time, the tradition of depicting him on a reindeer‑drawn sleigh became fixed. In the earliest illustrations, Santa drove a small sleigh pulled by a single reindeer. In 1823, the first edition of the famous poem “The Night Before Christmas” appeared, in which the sleigh was pulled by eight “horned helpers.” The ninth reindeer, named Rudolph, who leads the team, appeared only in 1949, when Johnny Marks wrote the song “Rudolph, the Red‑Nosed Reindeer.” The other reindeer are named Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Dunder (“Blockhead”), and Blixem (“Lightning”). Even today scholars cannot agree on the sex of Santa’s “draught animals”—a number of specialists seriously argue whether the reindeer are ordinary males, castrated ones, or even females.

Santa Claus’s final appearance was shaped by advertising—the familiar, not‑only‑western image was drawn by American artist Haddon Sundblom, who in 1931 created a series of illustrations commissioned by the Coca‑Cola company.

Lately, calls have been heard for a radical “modernization” of the main Christmas symbol. Dr. Nathan Grills of Monash University (Australia) asserts that depictions of a fat Santa, gulping brandy and meat pies while riding in his sleigh, clearly do nothing to promote a healthy and safe lifestyle among the younger generation. According to the Australian scholar, the harm is compounded by the fact that Santa Claus is often used to advertise products that are, to varying degrees, detrimental to health (from sugary soft drinks to alcohol and tobacco). Moreover, he indirectly promotes drink‑driving, Dr. Grills claims, citing the tradition of leaving the New Year’s wizard a glass of brandy “for the road.”

“The image of a healthier Santa Claus would be very effective for telling people about healthy eating and a proper lifestyle,” the scientist is convinced.

Internet address: https://www.yuga.ru/news/175929/

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