You have to serve a bowl of rice pudding to the Tomte during Christmas. If you neglect to do so anything can happen. I didn't want to take any chances so I left a bowl on the veranda. From Wikipedia: One was also required to please the spirit with gifts (see Blót) – a particular gift was a bowl of porridge on Christmas night. If the tomte was not given his payment, he would leave the farm or house, or engage in mischief such as tying the cows' tails together in the barn, turning objects upside-down, and breaking things (like a troll). The tomte liked his porridge with a pat of butter on the top. In an often retold story, a farmer put the butter underneath the porridge. When the tomte of his farmstead found that the butter was missing, he was filled with rage and killed the cow resting in the barn. But, as he thus became hungry, he went back to his porridge and ate it, and so found the butter at the bottom of the bowl. Full of grief, he then hurried to search the lands to find another farmer with an identical cow, and replaced the former with the latter.
16 comments:
Very much as some of those things we do in Chinese New Year, believe it or not type things ! And Merry Christmas to you !
A beautiful photo, but most of all this post makes me hungry.
Nice tale and shows us that Christmas is not only the celebration of Christ birth but also a lot of many other party's to celebrate the coming of spring and keeping the spiritual world that exist happy. Enjoy today.
My wife has porridge for breakfast but no butter.
Interesting custom. Hope you're having a happy Christmas Day wherever you are. And beware of excesses, whether for food or drink.
An interesting story and custom, have a nice and happy Christmas Day.
You Swedes are very funny! God Jul to you and yours!
Oh my, the poor cows!
Merry Christmas!
It's good that you left that rice pudding out for him! God Jul!
Have a great Christmas day Steffe.
God Jul to you and yours!
That is all much too risky. I would leave porridge, too.
What a marvelous post. I hope you had a Merry Christmas.
Hoping you and yours have a wonderful day together to celebrate the meaning of Christmas ~ faith, family and friends.
I like porridge, perhaps with some honey. I hope you enjoyed a Very Merry Christmas Stefan.
He sounds scary. Yes, I think it was a good idea to leave the bowl of porridge. Good thing you put the butter on top too.
I hope you had a wonderful Christmas, Steffe!
I feel that there's definitely a 'moral' to this story Steffe!
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