Why do your people have seasons?

[Biciclista]

I can only imagine what it was like for the ancestors who watched the sun slowly set further and further south until one day it turned around and came back north... once more, the days would get longer and warmer.

[lph]

Still not directly to do with the why of seasons either, but anyway: the Vikings had a "blót", i.e. sacrifice, several times a year to the gods, one in midsummer, one after the harvest season to thank for a good harvest, and most importantly one around the winter solstice, "jól", for the harvest season to come. Blót is related to blood, which they drank. Christmas is still called "jul" here, from pre-Christian times. You can find details on Wikipedia more than I know

But a funny spinoff is the tradition that still exists of putting out a bowl of porridge (thick, creamy rice porridge, good stuff!) to the "nisse" at Christmas. Today Santa Claus is also called a nisse (julenissen), but the original nisse was a small grey-bearded elf living in the barn, the guardian of the household, and the porridge was his traditional sacrifice. If you didn't put out porridge for him he could think up all kinds of mischief on a traditional farm, sour the milk, lame the cows, stuff like that. Nothing large and magical like affecting the seasons though.

[channlluv]

I am completely loving the folklore. Thank you for sharing, Red, Alexis, LPH, and others to come, I hope. Mimi, that very line of wonderment is going into the introduction.

Tytbody, you're right. I didn't mean to riffle feathers. I apologize if my choice of wording rubbed you the wrong way. It absolutely was not intended to do so. My whole point is to share the cultural narratives of the various regions where seasons have contributed to the stories, or where stories have built up around the seasonal changes. I do see your and Trek's point, though. It might have come across differently if we were speaking in person and you could see my face and hear the tone of my voice. But, yes, by "your people" I really do mean your ethnic background. Not in a negative way, though. (Not "You People.")

Red was right -- I meant this in an anthropological way for the purpose of writing a book for children celebrating different regions'/cultures' stories about weather, so I'm asking in the most geographically diverse community of which I'm a participating member for leads to go research. That's all. I'm sorry I didn't make that more clear in my initial post.

I'd still love to hear your weather-related mythology, legends, and folklore if you have any you'd care to share. I'll research all of them and get some authoritative sourcing and credit every story shared with a "special thanks to..." note. I'm looking forward to learning about all these cultures in more detail.

And Trek, no, definitely not the title of the book. Right now the working title is Why Do We Have Seasons?, but that will likely change. It's aimed at kids ages 8 - 12.

I'm also working on a book about animal artists -- animals that paint in zoo and sanctuary settings, and another about ghost hunting, and my next one is on the history of mermaids. If anyone has any cool mermaid mythology for your region...that's next. Seriously.

Roxy

[channlluv]

Still not directly to do with the why of seasons either, but anyway: the Vikings had a "blót", i.e. sacrifice, several times a year to the gods, one in midsummer, one after the harvest season to thank for a good harvest, and most importantly one around the winter solstice, "jól", for the harvest season to come. Blót is related to blood, which they drank. Christmas is still called "jul" here, from pre-Christian times. You can find details on Wikipedia more than I know

But a funny spinoff is the tradition that still exists of putting out a bowl of porridge (thick, creamy rice porridge, good stuff!) to the "nisse" at Christmas. Today Santa Claus is also called a nisse (julenissen), but the original nisse was a small grey-bearded elf living in the barn, the guardian of the household, and the porridge was his traditional sacrifice. If you didn't put out porridge for him he could think up all kinds of mischief on a traditional farm, sour the milk, lame the cows, stuff like that. Nothing large and magical like affecting the seasons though.

LPH, did each house have an individual guardian or was the nisse part of something larger, like my Catholic neighbor two doors down who had an icon of Mary in the flower bed by her front door, but Mary is Mary regardless of which house's garden her statue is standing in...the same being watching over different households.

What if the house didn't have a barn? Are there different guardians for townspeople? How was this nisse related to the family? Like, in Thailand some families have spirit houses outside the main house for the spirits of their ancestors, and in China, some families keep shrines to their ancestors inside their homes. Are the nisse attached to the family or the place? If the family moves, does the nisse move with them?

I can go read all of this on Wikipedia, I'm sure, but it's more interesting coming from someone who actually lives in the culture.

Roxy

[KnottedYet]

How are you planning to make your books stand out from the myriad of others on the same topics? Ya gotta have something unique. I'd narrow the focus down to something local (San Diego old-timers' weather myths. San Diego mermiad stories. San Diego ghost hunters. Animals painting in zoos in Southern California.)

It's a bunny eat bunny world.

Oh, and do give Mimi full credit for the lovely sentence she wrote.

[tangentgirl]

My people don't have stories either.
I'm reading "The Ohlone Way" and "The Way We Lived" for an drawing I'm working on. We don't have seasons in terms of extreme weather in the coastal part of sunny CA but we sure have seasons of differences in weather, when plants bloom and seed. If you do some research you will find the Ohlone (who are not one tribe but a group of them more or less) lived in such great harmony with the earth and each other in abundance that they knew exactly when to harvest this or that.

Neato, sounds like good reading.

So when I'm in the supermarket "ethnic food" aisle exactly what is the food of "my people" ? For many of us it's a mix.

For my people, it's the section with canned cream of mushroom soup over hamburger and frozen peas. Sacred food of my ancestors.

[Trek420]

Oh, and do give Mimi full credit for the lovely sentence she wrote.

Yes do. I hope she copyright it.

I'm lucky to have a Mom who's gardened/farmed the same region since the 40's. She's very aware of changes in the seasons. Sometimes this is with concern such as noticing certain wild flowers would always bloom in a field at this time before, now they are late. Often it's just knowing that now is the time to plant or sow or that crops are doing better this year.

I can imagine long ago as days got shorter and shorter that the children of "my people" may have been puzzled, or even alarmed. But a grandparent knowing that the seasons will change again might have explained why.

That's kind of the thought bubble that occurs

For my people, it's the section with canned cream of mushroom soup over hamburger and frozen peas. Sacred food of my ancestors.

Since I bat for the other team it's the aisle with Perrier and Greek yogurt. but from an ancestry point of view the kosher food aisle.

[lph]

Are the nisse attached to the family or the place? If the family moves, does the nisse move with them?

Oh, every house had it's own nisse. This dates from a time where every house had a barn. Or at least a woodshed, or some other kind of outhouse. Norwegians have traditionally lived on each their own farm, preferably on each their own hilltop, at best within waving distance of neighbours... I wasn't sure, but my dh is certain - the nisse was "stedfast", i.e. place-fast, i.e. attached to the place. Unrelated to the family. The guardian thing was only when he was in a good mood, he could be quite grumpy, but could be placated with small gifts.

In the 18th century many people truly believed in the nisse (no, I didn't know that, I looked it up), and that they were warding off bad luck by giving him porridge. I found a story about a servant girl who played a trick on the nisse by hiding the butter "eye", the pat of butter supposed to be on the top, at the bottom of the bowl and the porridge on top. The nisse was infuriated and struck down the farm's best milk cow. He then ate the porridge and found the butter at the bottom. He regretted what he'd done, and replaced the cow with the best milk cow from the neighbouring farm...

And there's a wellknown expression about "nissen på lasset", the "nisse in your belongings", which means not being able to escape from a vexing problem. It comes from a story about a farmer with a particularly mean nisse who tried to pack up and move from his farm, but the nisse hid in his belongings and just turned up at the next farm he moved to.

Actually I've used that when I'm having trouble with my bike and just can't figure out what it is. I have a nisse in my wheel...

btw: I'm blended too. To me it just means I have more "people" to choose from

[channlluv]

Well, now I'm bristling. Ha! Thanks for the writing advice, Knot, but this isn't for a local San Diego publisher. My seasons book is for the broader school library market, so including only San Diego-specific stories won't sell it, or any of the others. A broader scope is needed, but I'm looking for regional stories that haven't already been told a bazillion times. And I realize I don't talk about this part of my life here, so you wouldn't know, but I've been involved in children's publishing in one capacity or another for a couple of decades now and have co-authored an award-winning book about cryptids. I've run an award-winning professional resource site for children's writers and illustrators and administered an international writing competition over several years that helped launch over forty children's writers' and illustrators' careers. I've been a contributing editor on other books that have been published and one of my freelance gigs now is publishing consultant. I've just finished six years as a school librarian, although I am just getting into the writing side full-time. All quotes, stories, etc. will be duly attributed, I promise. And legally, Mimi's line was copyrighted as soon as she wrote it. There's no need for her to go copyright anything. It's already done.

So, now that I've come off as all good and defensive...

LPH, I love the nisse stories, weather-related or not. Thank you for sharing!

Roxy

[KnottedYet]

Whoa there, tiger!

[salsabike]

btw: I'm blended too. To me it just means I have more "people" to choose from

Love it. And all the info on Norwegian and Viking traditions you provided. Was just in Oslo for all of three days! Had it been longer, I would've tried to meet you.

Channlluv, sounds like a lovely book idea.

[tytbody]

Tytbody, you're right. I didn't mean to riffle feathers. I apologize if my choice of wording rubbed you the wrong way. It absolutely was not intended to do so. My whole point is to share the cultural narratives of the various regions where seasons have contributed to the stories, or where stories have built up around the seasonal changes. I do see your and Trek's point, though. It might have come across differently if we were speaking in person and you could see my face and hear the tone of my voice. But, yes, by "your people" I really do mean your ethnic background. Not in a negative way, though. (Not "You People.")


Roxy

Very good explaination. I understand now.
I don't think we have a special *season* cause if we did, I guess I would have understood where you were coming from in the get.

Now you see, you'll have to make sure you make that title so all of us adults and grandparents will want to pick it up.

LPH - loved your story/information.

Do you think a Nisson came from Nisse?

On the food aisle, I thikn they should just put a spice witha spice and a juice with a juice. Why keep segregating. If the grocery store is for all then put all the food togethter.

Now I can see them putting organics with organics but just because there is Goya beans and some other beans, it should just be the bean aisle.

[Sardine]

channlluv, I'm from Southeast Asia originally. This discussion reminded me of the 'Mooncake' festival or mid-autumn festival celebrated in many countries in that region. By the way, it's about to take place soon. The stories behind it are not about why seasons change but it is a celebration that takes place when the moon is supposed to be at its brightest and most beautiful, and some of the myths seek to explain this. The other main story explains the tradition of marking the festival by exchanging 'mooncakes'. Hanging up and carrying lanterns also form part of the celebrations.

These are the two stories that I recall very vaguely from childhood about this festival, which to be honest, was not of significance to us but an excuse for a celebration. The first relates to a moon goddess of fairy. All I can remember is my grandmother telling me stories about this but I don't recall the stories themselves. The second one was about people wanting to overthrow the ruler of China and hiding messages in cakes during the moon festival. That was about as much as I could remember so I did a Google search to check my memories. Here are some links that will give you more information if this is of interest:

http://www.journeymalaysia.com/MCUL_midautumn.htm (There are also useful Singaporean sites but the stories related in this one are closer to my own memories)
http://chinesefood.about.com/od/moon...onfestival.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mid-Autumn_Festival

[Crankin]

I guess I was taking this prompt much too literally, like beliefs in what causes the seasons, not traditions surrounding the seasons.
There are a few cultural/religious traditions in Judaism, related to seasons. The whole Jewish New Year season is at the beginning of harvest (apples and honey for a sweet new year), the beginning of school (maybe not 5,000 years ago), and kind of a season of "starting over," hence the forgiveness of sins on Yom Kippor. The end of the holiday season, Sukkot, is the Feast of the Tabernacles, which celebrates the harvest. Our American Thanksgiving is supposedly modeled on this holiday.

[channlluv]

Crankin, I am looking for what-causes-the-seasons stories if you have any.

The seasonal traditions are nice, too. I was just reading the link Sardine posted about the Mooncake Festival - thank you, Sardine! - about how it originated as a celebration of gratitude to the Moon Goddess for a bountiful growing season, celebrated on the autumn moon because this is when the moon is its largest and most beautiful...lovely! And then later the festival tradition of baking mooncakes was used by rebels to overthrow the former government and establish the Ming dynasty. (They baked the map of their attack into the cake tops. Clever.)

From that story, the Moon Goddess didn't cause the season change, but she did bless the growing season, allowing for the bountiful harvest.

Sardine, where in SE Asia? I'm just curious as to variations on the folktale. I have a sister-in-law from Bangkok. I'll have to ask her what stories she heard as a little girl. I have a friend here who is first generation Chinese American and she told me a couple of years back about missing the mooncakes her mom made, and that she would, but that they're a lot of work. She gave me a commercially-produced mooncake instead, which was good, but I wondered what her mom's tasted like. Do you know how to make them?

Aussie and Kiwi friends, does Santa Claus wear shorts for you?

Roxy -- back to reading about Moon Goddesses and Nisses.