Monday, January 17, 2011

Fairy Tale of the Beggar Woman and the Fire



(Pablo Picasso, Weeping Woman with Handkerchief, 1937)

Grimm’s Fairy Tale No. 150: The Old Beggar Woman

There once lived an old woman, surely you have seen this type of person begging?
When the old woman went out crying for alms, if she received something, she said to her benefactor, “May God give you your just reward.” Now the beggar woman arrived at the door of a rapscallion, a young chap warming himself by the fire. The fellow greeted the woman friendly enough and asked why the woman stood at the door shivering. “Come here, old mother and warm your bones.” She approached the fire but came too close so that her old rags began to burn, but she did not notice what had happened. The youth stood quietly, and saw it all. He should have done something! Even if he didn’t have any water, then he should have cried bitter tears so forcefully, that two watery streams flowed from his eyes to quench the fire.


Copyright FairyTaleChannel.com


Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Fairy Tale New Year's Eve Celebrations


Fairy Tale Parties, and Dancing, and Feasting on New Year's Eve
Designing your own New Year's Eve Traditions:
Starting at 11:59 p.m.:
1. Ring bells to signify the ending of the New Year
2. Sing a song or recite an appropriate verse
3. Open the front door to let in the New Year (and close it again)
4. Raise a toast to commemorate events in the past year
5. Raise a toast to mark your hopes for the New Year
6. New Year's resolutions
7. Open the back door to let the old year out
8. Ring bells to celebrate the New Year

We must learn to trust the future…..
but for those who are curious about what the future has in store…

Augury for the 21st century (adapted by the fairytalechannel.org editorial staff)
Love augury to foretell one’s future true love during the course of the year:
Unmarried maids take four onions and place them in the corners of the room, assigning a young man’s name to each of the bulbs. Let the onions stand from Near Year’s Day until Three King’s Day (Jan. 6). Whichever onion sends out a green shoot, the person associated with that onion will become a suitor during the year; if no onion sprouts, no wedding will be celebrated during the year.
On New Year’s Eve, those persons who find themselves in a city at midnight, and who will make their way to a festive communal celebration (like fireworks at midnight), can follow this custom:
City dwellers buy a roll and divide it into three parts. As they walk down the first street, they eat the first part of the roll. In the second street they eat the second part of the roll. In the third street they eat the third part and there they shall meet their future true love.

Weather augury to foresee the New Year’s weather patterns.
The weather on December 31st forecasts the trend for the entire month of January and so on, see table below:
December 31st : Weather for month of January
January 1st : Weather for month of February
January 2nd : Weather for month of March
January 3rd : Weather for month of April
January 4th : Weather for month of May
January 5th : Weather for month of June
January 6th : Weather for month of July
January 7th : Weather for month of August
January 8th :Weather for month of September
January 9th :Weather for month of October
January 10th : Weather for month of November
January 11th : Weather for month of December

Example: If the weather on December 31st is mild most of the day but a winter storm hits an hour before midnight: expect a January with wildly fluctuating weather, but the predominate theme for January weather is mild with surges of excess.

Coin toss to predict a year of failure or success.
(If you don’t like the first outcome, you can always take the average of several tosses).
Bread under the pillow to predict one’s future true love.
Buy a perfectly shaped roll, carve out an emblem or face with a knife, place under pillow and sleep on it New Year’s Eve. In the morning, try to determine whose face the roll most closely resembles. (However, a perfectly smashed roll means there is little hope of marriage during the New Year.)

Customs to follow on January 1st and month of January:
Extend good wishes for the New Year to friends and family (a phone call, card, or personal greeting).
Make resolutions for the New Year, think about things you would like to change, self-improvement, goals, hopes or aspirations for the New Year. Think about your blessings and joys. Write all this down on a piece of paper and put it in a safe spot. (Read your list again Next New Year’s Eve.).

The custom of giving New Year’s gifts is outmoded but should be revived. This is a great time to give small tokens of appreciation, not fancy or expensive gifts. For example: a jar of home-made jam, honey from a local farmer, a loaf of freshly made bread, a small New Year’s wreath you have made yourself with fresh greens from the yard or a card you made especially for the person. If all this seems too involved, a simple E-mail message is also quite nice!

And if you dance on New Year's Eve, follow the example in the picture above only metaphorically, by severing yourself from those things that have frightened or sapped your energies in the past year, thus chopping off a head.




Translation Copyright FairyTaleChannel.org
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Friday, December 17, 2010

The Farmers of Kolbeck Dance on Christmas Eve


(Illustration Tomi Ungerer, Das Grosse Liederbuch)


Grimm’s Saga No. 232: The Farmers of Kolbeck

 
In the year 1012 a farmer in the village of Kolbeck near Halberstadt by the name of Albrecht started to dance on Christmas Eve. He began his dance in the churchyard with fifteen other farmers while the other villagers celebrated mass inside the church. There were three women among the dancers. The priest came out of the church with the intent of punishing each and every one of them. Finally the farmer stepped forth and said “They call me Albrecht, you are called Ruprecht; You are happy inside, so let us be happy outside. You sing your songs inside, so let us dance our roundelay outside.”
The priest replied: "May God and the Holy St. Magnus make you dance for an entire year!”
And so it happened. God gave those words power so that neither rain nor snow nor frost touched the heads of the dancers. Nor did they feel the pangs of heat, hunger or thirst, but rather they all danced and their shoes did not become worn. The verger ran over to the throng and wanted to pull his sister out of the dance, but she only flapped her arms and continued. When the year was over, Bishop Heribert of Cologne came and broke the spell. Four of the dancers immediately fell to the earth and died. The others became very sick. It was said that they danced until their shuffling feet had hollowed out a huge hole in the earth, which can still be seen today. A nobleman had as many stones erected as there were dancers. They still stand in the churchyard today as sign of what has passed.