Season's Bleatings: Finnish Photographs of the Nuuttipukki (1928)

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36 points·drdee··4 comments

If you're into horror comedy movies, be sure to check out Rare Exports [1]. It combines some of the folklore with the commercial father christmas.

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_Exports:_A_Christmas_Ta...

Regarding how the tradition lives on in the Finnish version of Santa Claus:

> The Finnish Santa Claus has also been greatly influenced by his American colleague. However, the Finnish Santa Claus visits children in person and gives them presents, whereas the American Santa Claus can only be seen in department stores. These personal visits to children’s homes are the most Finnish aspect of our Santa Claus, and it comes from the St Knut Day’s nuuttipukkis. https://wiki.aineetonkulttuuriperinto.fi/wiki/Santa_Claus_tr...

And the American modern Santa Claus has been greatly influenced by the jovian illustrations by Haddon Sundblom for Coca-Cola advertising (1930s). Haddon himself was a descendant of folks from Åland Islands, Finland, mentioned in the article.

It's where I'm from as well, and as a young kid, me and friends would visit the houses in the village at the date mentioned, and receive candy (or else!). It's very similar to the trick or treat tradition during Halloween.

the Finnish folklorist mentioned

https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toivo_Kaukoranta

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