this post was submitted on 24 Dec 2024
187 points (95.2% liked)

YUROP

1249 readers
616 users here now

A laid back community for good news, pictures and general discussions among people living in Europe.

Other European communities

Other casual communities:

Language communities

Cities

Countries

founded 11 months ago
MODERATORS
all 49 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 day ago

North african name looks like a western URL address

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 day ago (4 children)

....

Tree trunk that defecates present

....

Ummm...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 20 hours ago

CRANK THAT LOG

[–] [email protected] 4 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Yes. And you have to beat it until it starts shitting

[–] [email protected] 3 points 23 hours ago

Time to sing "Caga tió" and beat a log until it gives us sweet treats...

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Very funy, i have one of them. It represents the fertility of the soil.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Defecates is a bad word for that...

[–] fjordbasa 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Unfortunately, defecating is exactly what it does. It’s not a euphemism. It is literally a pooping log!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

And the log it self is also a represenation of defecation. A similar use of the word log in english also exists.

[–] fjordbasa 2 points 21 hours ago

I think I willfully didn’t make that connection. I’m well aware of the English use of log for poop but I guess I hoped there was some other explanation and didn’t want to believe that it was a basically a pooping piece of poop

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Btw Christmas-Man comes early

(Christmas Eve)

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Isn't it the same for Christ Child? Or do other Germans in the south get their presents on First day of Christmas? At least I didn't.

[–] x00z 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

This is not completely correct.

In Belgium and the Netherlands it's Sint-Nicolaas (Sinterklaas) who brings the presents on December 6th. Christmas does have a Santa Claus (Kerstman) because of modern culture, but you'll mostly see people gifting presents themselves, instead of Santa gifting them.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 hours ago

Don't forget Sint-Maarten who brings gifts in November.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

England: "Father Christmas"
Ireland: "make it kinkier"

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA 1 points 15 hours ago

I need to live somewhere you can call someone Sweaty as an honorific

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Olentzero is no ordinary old man that brings presents to kids on Christmas, he's a charcoal burner that is also a Jentil, a giant in the Basque mythology.

He was originally a pagan, but some say he stayed behind and converted to chrisitanism when he saw Jesus about to be born, while the other jentilak escaped. Other less favorable interpretations say he converted and betrayed the rest of the jentilak, showing the people their locations so they could be killed.

All these are modern interpretations for Christmas because afaik originally he was supposed to be somewhat evil.

Source: am basque

[–] RaspberryJam 5 points 1 day ago

This is fascinating, thank you!!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 21 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago)

He is also shown as a shepherd, although Jentils would naturally be shepherds I guess. Also another clarification, Gentile are not just giants, but ancestors of Basque people that did not descend from mountains and forests and thus didn't get civilised and shrink.

Source: another Basque.

[–] qarbone 3 points 19 hours ago

Hey, "Apalpador"? You're gonna have to find a new thing. That's not gonna fly anymore.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

The Polish going with Ziggy Stardust. And why the hell not, seems like a fine fellow to bring gifts.

[–] egrets 11 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The note on the Low Countries says there's no traditional Christmas gift-giver, but doesn't Sinterklaas traditionally bring gifts on Sint Nicolasdaag?

[–] Mannimarco 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yes, but that's a different holiday

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Then the Ukrainian and Russians don't count either

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Chistmas starts at Holy Eve and ends on Epiphany, January 6th, so New Year's Eve fits into that time frame.

Saint Nicolaus' December 6th according to the Julian calendar is probably on December 19th according to Gregorian calendar, thus, this is a different holiday.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Santa Claus is a straight copy of Sinterklaas. Even Wikipedia says so. Also, I don't know any Dutch kids that believe in Santa Claus but a great many believe in Sinterklaas. Santa is not a gift giver here at all. If there are gifts at Christmas (a minority) then it's given by family, not by Santa.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

In Germany, Saint Nicolaus is filling boots of the nice kids with nuts, oranges and chocolate (or alike) on the morning of December 6th and also doesn't bring the Christmas gifts.
The Weihnachtsmann (or Santa Claus), however, afaIk, was imported from the US in the last century, where it had evolved from the St. Nicolaus figure.
As I'm from a 'Chist child' family, I don't know if the Weihnachtsmann actually "brings" the presents in the more northern parts.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

So many mandarines/clementines on Sinterklaas 😭

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I always found the image of the Christ child lugging all the gifts around funny as an American who grew up in Germany.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 23 hours ago

A note on Deda Mraz/Дед Мороз - these days it's 100% conflated with Santa Claus, with the red robe and reindeer. If there is any old Slavic tradition there, it's been completely lost.

[–] Lumisal 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Funny they say France is Father Christmas but Spain it's Daddy Christmas when they're the same words technically. Maybe they confused Papá with Papí?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah that's an error, he's father Christmas here. On a side note, papi has no accent

[–] Lumisal 1 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Dang it, I corrected it to the wrong thing.

I never use Papi so I didn't remember if it had one

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Papá has one to mark the intonation and to differentiate it from Papa, the pope.

Papi is said with the same intonation as Daddy so it doesn't have an accent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Papa is also potato in America, but in Spain we use patata

[–] Lumisal 1 points 18 hours ago

Yup, but also means pope, so my dad would joke about the potato pope

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In French, "papa" is the informal way to call your own father, while "père" describes the relationship.

I don't know enough about Spanish to compare, but the french translation feels right to me.

(Actually... Translating "Noël" into a word that talks about Christ and Masses feels weird to me!)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago

Padre = father Papa = dad Papi = daddy

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 20 hours ago)

But they were all of them deceived, for another gift giver was the real one, in the lands of humanism, where the seculars live, in the fires of reality, there it was known that the true gives of gifts and indeed gifts themselves, were our fellow mortals.

Happy holidays everyone! May your days be merry and bright and thank you for being such a great community Lemmy!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 18 hours ago

I never knew that about Morocco’s people

More maps at jakubmarian.com

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Translating "julemanden" as "Christmas man" just feels wrong.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You could say "Yule man" instead, but it means the same thing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 20 hours ago (2 children)

Well not exactly. Yule and similar words are used as the word for Christmas in Scandinavian languages but it used to refer to a non-christian tradition. Scandinavian countries are generally not very religious and I personally don't like the association of yule with christianity.

[–] dafo 2 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

Came here to point out that "jul" isn't exactly Christmas. It feels weird seeing "julenisse" be translated as "Christmas gnome" knowing the mythos behind the ~~little pyromaniac shitter~~ little buddy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Its meaning has become conflated with Christmas just as Christmas was stolen from pagan traditions, but that is still its current meaning in English.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago

Yea but coming from a danish viewpoint, I find it strange to equate them.