'The Great Hunt in the Sky' is an ancient European myth which has existed perhaps since the pleistoscene. It has manifested in a lot of interesting ways; Johnny Cash's 'ghost riders in the sky', santa and his reindeer, Wagners ride of the Valkyries,
Note: most of the etymological research on this was done in what is now modern germany, but this myth was equally prevalent in france, british isles, scandinavia etc