December 4, 2019 • 26 mins
Our holiday special is back! We're once again looking at holiday figures from around the world. Today, we’re going to have a mix of Scandinavian and Japanese traditions as we cover the nisse, the Yule Goat, and the Seven Lucky Gods.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Wilson and
Happy Holiday season, Tracy. Yes, it is after Thanksgiving, so
I feel okay about saying that. At least it will
(00:23):
be when this episode comes out. It's the last thing
we're recording before we actually have that holiday. Yeah, I don't.
I don't. We've talked about this, I think well back
when we're doing pop stuff, I mentioned I have no
calendar issues with people saying happy holiday greetings in July
because I grew up going to craft stores where the
(00:44):
holidays are always out. Sure, so I don't. I don't
have any concerns. And I my house is literally Halloween
three and sixty five days a year, so to me,
the holidays are a very fluid concept. But we are
officially in December, which is when most people would get
into the holiday spirit. And back in sixteen, we did
a series of three holiday episodes two sixteen that we
(01:08):
called the Crampus and Friends Holiday Special and we've missed them,
so this year we are bringing it back for a
part four just for expectations management. For any listeners who
were not listening back then and maybe haven't heard those episodes,
this episode does not feature Crampus. Crampus kicked off the
whole thing for us, and that's what we call it
Crampus and Friends. Uh So we covered him in part one.
(01:30):
You can go back and listen to that or to
all three if you really want to travel the world
of holiday traditions. But today we're going to have a
mix of Scandinavian and Japanese traditions as we cover the Nissa,
the Yule Goat, and the Seven Lucky Gods. So Scandinavian
folklore features a familiar looking little fellow who goes by
a slightly different name depending on what country you're in.
(01:53):
In Norway he's known as Nissa. In Sweden, he's Tempta,
and he's Tempted in Finland. They are pretty consistent, these
depictions and how they're characterized across those various countries. The
names are just a little different, and the word Nissa
is said to be a derivation of the name Nils
Nicholas essentially, and Tempta shares a route with the Swedish
(02:15):
word tampt, which is a land parcel or a homestead,
and the tampta or nissa is a solitary creature. It
turns both helpful and mischievous, and you will see why
it's tied to the concept of homes and homesteading. Nissan
are protective entities that help families, and they particularly help
with the farm homes to care for the livestock and
(02:36):
the land. There's a particularly strong affinity on the part
of nissa for horses, and he'll be sure to take
extra special care of horses, sometimes even braiding their manes
and tails to keep them looking their best. They're also
considered generally pretty lucky. If a nissa settles on your land,
he said to attract good fortune and to drive away evil.
(02:58):
And a nissa is a diminutive spray. He tops out
at about three feet that's about a meter tall, and
he dresses in simple farmer's garb of a tunic fitted
pants and boots, plus a cap on his head, and
he sometimes depicted as a little bit raggedy. Usually his
cap is red, but some depictions show the nissa with
variations in colors, although they're generally bright shades and red
(03:20):
is almost always the color of at least one of
his garments, and if you give a nissa new clothes,
that nissa might feel too fancy to do any works,
So definitely don't do that. As I was looking for
artwork to go with this episode, the depictions of nissa
reminded me of gnomes a little bit. They're very much
There's a reason that they have been appropriated into garden
(03:42):
sculpture because everyone wants one of these. If you have
a nissa, you have good fortune in a tidy home.
So yeah. So the face of the nissa is that
of an elderly man with a full beard full of
white hair, although in some places like Denmark, they might
have clean shaven chins. Where did the us to come from?
That is a little unclear, although some versions of the
(04:03):
folklore suggest that a nissa is the spirit of the
enterprising farmer who originally cleared and settled the land where
he lives, and that he remains on that land to
protect the generations of farmers that follow and ensure that
his work is not undone. But people who live in
cities might also have a tampton or nissa, and in
these cases they just hunker down under the floorboards during
(04:25):
the warmer months and then come out as the winter
holidays approach. Uh. Yeah, they come out at night. They
do some chores, they take care of you h And
in exchange for all of this kind help, the family
has its own side of the bargain to hold up.
It has to take care of the Nissa and show
their appreciation by leaving him a buttery bowl of porridge
to eat on occasion, and in recent times this offering
(04:48):
has come to be a Christmas Eve tradition specifically. And
you should absolutely not look for the Nissa because they
do not like to be seen and they will turn
invisible to avoid it. So also don't mess Vanessa. If
you don't fulfill your duties with the porridge provisions, or
if you behave in a way that he doesn't like,
including trying to see him or undoing the braids that
(05:09):
he's left in your horse's hair, you might incur his wrath.
And while you might delight in the Nissa doing chores,
don't ever interrupt him while he's carrying these duties out,
because if Vanessa is angered, he might bite, and there
is venom in that bite that can only be tempered
with a magical antidote. Yes, adorable and poisonous uh the
(05:31):
best of holiday things. You also want to make sure
that you do your part in keeping an orderly home
because that is what nissa like. And if you spill anything,
you have to give a yell to your nissa and
let him know so that he doesn't slip see above red.
Getting angry and uh and irritated Nissa might hide your
things or inactive bit of trickery in order to get revenge.
(05:53):
But there are some even scarier stories of nissan that
tell tales of them injuring livestock or in some cases
even killing animals if the farmer they belong to you
has acted poorly. One such instance of a nissa being
particularly cruel is from a legend about a servant girl
purposely trying to fold the household nissa. She hid the
(06:14):
butter in his Christmas porridge down at the bottom of
the bowl instead of putting it on top, and thinking
that he had been stiffed on his butter, the nissa
killed the family's cow, but then went ahead and ate
the porridge, and then, realizing that he had been served
the butter just down at the bottom of the bowl,
he stole a cow from a neighbor to replace the
one he had killed, So kind of a mixed bag
(06:35):
behavior wise. Uh, your Nissa is great, but your neighbor's
Nissa you don't want any part. Yes, this is also
kind of a two wrongs don't make a right situation right,
And this ties into some stories you'll occasionally hear about
Scandinavia during Christianization and how that impacted the Nissa's story.
(06:56):
The Nissas started to be viewed in some ways as
negatively and started to be associated by some extremists as
a servant or an associate of the devil. So welcoming
Enissa during this time when they were viewed with all
this suspicion was considered to be playing a very dangerous
game with the fate of your soul. And in this transition,
in some areas where they reviewed this way, success started
(07:19):
to be targeted as having some sort of sinister aspect
to it because Nissa must be involved, and that meant
that you were consorting with something that consorted with evil.
And this also ties into that Lord we just talked about,
that Enissa might steal from one farmstead to benefit the
farmer that he lived with. The Nissa has evolved over time.
It was in the middle of the nineteenth century that
(07:40):
these sprites came to be linked to Christmas, and in
some areas a different entity branched off of the Nissa legend,
known as the Ulnissa, which is closer to a Santa
Claus entity. Yeah, there as there are with Nissa, where
you'll see them as Tompta or tom too. Uh. You
can see you Lenissa and their other uh sort of
(08:00):
Yule root names in different countries. But still this idea
of this gnome like home sprite persisted in Scandinavia. In
a one Swedish novelist Victor Roderberg wrote the poem Thompton,
which became very popular, and it also cemented the idea
of Toompton or Nissen as farm spirits in modern folklore.
(08:21):
That has also been adapted a number of times. You
can find modern storybook versions of it which are really
really sweet. And this also added to the lore of
Toompton and Nissen by characterizing these helpful spirits as being
philosophically thoughtful about the people that they watch over. Here's
the translation of one of the stanzas, so he has
seen them sire and son year by year in that
(08:43):
room there sleep first as children everyone. But whence did
they come there? This generation to that was air blossomed,
grew old and was gone. But where that is the
hopeless burning riddle ever returning. This poem also established the
tempted as a nocturnal creature who watches over things while
the humans rest, and it concludes with the lines now
(09:06):
sinks the moon in night, profound snow on the furs,
and pines around, snow on the roofs is gleaming. All
but the goblin are dreaming. Coming up, we're going to
talk about goats and fire, but first we will take
a quick break for a sponsor break. Today. People that
(09:30):
are raised in the US probably think that You'll is
just a synonym for Christmas. I did for quite a
long time, But originally Ule was, of course a multi
day pagan winter solstice festival. As Christianity spread throughout Europe,
this celebration slowly transition to the Nativity feast and became
associated with Christmas rather than its origin point. And a
(09:51):
goat has played various roles and seasonal celebrations going back
to You'll, Although the precise origins of the goats presence
are un lear. There are a lot of different associations
with goats and Scandinavian legend and that could be part
of the origin of goats as a symbolic part of
winter holidays. For example, Thor's chariot is said to have
(10:12):
been pulled by two goats in Norse mythology, and as
Father Christmas was adopted into winter celebrations and some Scandinavian traditions,
he rides a goat. Going back to the sixteen hundreds,
there was a tradition in Danish farming villages for one
of the young men in the area to dress as
a goat during Yule, complete with a goat skull on
his head, and go door to door, essentially bursting into
(10:34):
people's houses and creating sort of a fun havoc. This
havoc generally included throwing around some insults and gently overturning
some furniture maybe, but the goat could be placated with
beer and snacks and then sated, he would move on
to the next house to do some carousing there. A
less raucous and more benevolent version of this tradition involved
(10:55):
the village goats stopping by Yule parties and doling out
gifts to good children. Goats made out of straw or
other natural materials became holiday descor over time, sometimes with
an accompanying story that the goat was keeping an eye
on things and making sure holiday preparation was being handled properly.
Eventually they became available in all sizes, from ornaments to
(11:17):
massive centerpieces large enough to decorate town squares. Yes, some
people still like to play the game where you hide
a yule a small Yule goat in your neighbor's house.
The idea is like you're being watched and then it's
your job to then pass that goat onto someone else,
which is sort of fun. But speaking of that massive
scale that Tracy just mentioned, that is what has made
(11:39):
the Yule goat his his most famous in the last
half century. In nineteen sixty six, the town of Yavle, Sweden,
erected a giant goat in its castle square, and that's
something that the town has done every year since, starting
with the first Sunday of Advent, and that practice has
taken on its own story, in part because of an
unofficial offshoot this that some citizens of the town have
(12:01):
adopted of setting the goat on fire that first year.
The Yavla goat was installed on December one, and at
the stroke of midnight, as the new year arrived, it
went up in flames. The goat arsonist was identified and
charged with vandalism. For a couple of years, the You'll
goat went up and lasted through the entire holiday season,
(12:22):
but on New Year's Eve of nineteen sixty nine the
goat was once again set on fire, although that time
the perpetrator was not identified. The goat erected in nineteen
seventy only lasted six hours. A new goat for the
nineteen seventy season was quickly built and put into its
place in Castle Square, and the rest of the nineteen
seventies were frankly rough on the goat. According to the
(12:46):
Yavla tourism site, over that decade it imploded one year,
it was smashed two bits. On several occasions, it was
rammed with a car, and it suffered several unknown fates.
It also burned again, once in nineteen seventy four and
again in nineteen seventy nine, when it went up in
flames before it was even put up. A second nineteen
(13:07):
seventy nine goat also destroyed throughout the nineteen eighties. The
goat had a similarly precarious life. Even when it was
saturated with fire retardant materials, arsonists still managed to burn
it down. In nineteen eighty nine, the raw materials for
the goat were set on fire before it was even assembled.
The nineteen eighties did see the Yavlay You'll goat make
(13:28):
it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the
largest straw goat in the world. Another development in the
nineteen eighties was the construction of two goats each year
that started in nineteen eighty six. Yeah, when the goat
tradition started in nineteen sixty six, it was originally the
work of the city's tradesmen, but after those first few
years of their work being destroyed, they just didn't want
(13:49):
to do it any longer. I cannot blame them, So
in nineteen seventy one, the Natural Science Society of Vazascotland
took over the annual building of the goat. But then
in nineteen the six the tradesmen of Yavla once again
started constructing giant yule goats, and at that point, as
a rivalry between the two goat building groups, began in
(14:10):
Both of the goats were set on fire eight days
after they were set up. The Tradesmen's goat was rebuilt,
only to be burned again. The same arsonist was found
to have set all three fires and was arrested. Another
interesting thing started happening in the nineteen nineties, and that's
some of the citizens of Yavla started setting up guard
details for the goats to try to deter these would
(14:32):
be arsonists and pranksters. The two thousands and the twenty
teens have seen a mixed bag of fires and survival
for the Yule Goat. In two thousand five, the Yule
Goat was besieged by flaming arrows, which were shot by
attackers that were dressed as gingerbread men and Father Christmas
in would be kidnappers trying to bribe the man who
(14:53):
was guarding the Yule goat into looking the other way
while they attempted to airlift it with a helicopter. That
guard could not be bought. Thankfully, the goat actually went
on a little trip. It traveled to China, where he
was visited by more than four hundred thousand people during
his time on display there. The Yavla Yule Goat has
become something of a celebrity and now has a webcam
(15:15):
which has been hacked by saboteurs at least once. It
also has a Twitter presence and an Instagram account and
a dedicated spokesperson so you can keep tabs on how
he's doing. While it is a constant battle to keep
this giant goat safe, it's also become a significant tourist
to draw in an economic driver for Yavla, so it's
unlikely that they will end this tradition anytime soon. Yeah.
(15:39):
I have seen multiple things online like in discussion or
comments on articles or the like why do they keep
doing this? It's he's expensive and like a pain in
the neck because it gets burnt so often. And it's
like if you look at Yavla's main like city website,
a lot of it is about tourism related to the goats,
so I don't think they want to give that up. Also,
(16:00):
it's beautiful, uh, and the goat has gotten bigger and
bigger over the years. His height at this point is
thirteen meters that's about forty two point six ft anyways,
three point six tons. It takes an estimated one thousand
man hours and an entire truckload of straw to build
the goat with the straw affixed to a metal frame base.
In and eighteen, the goat made it all the way
(16:23):
through the holiday season. Intact, here's to hoping in twenty
nineteen this will also be true. Hopefully, as of when
this episode comes out, the goat has not already been
set up and burned down. I'm not sure what the
schedule is, right, I hope not, because you know, as
we said, there's uh there are our webcams and people
(16:44):
protecting them now and it's apparently worked for a couple
of years, but you never know when a gingerbread man
with a flaming arrow might show up. There's also one
story of an American tourist who set him on fire ones,
which is embarrassing and horrifying. We are going to switch
away from your in traditions and kind of make our
way to the next set of holiday characters in another
(17:05):
part of the world. But before we do that, we're
gonna pause for a word from one of the sponsors
that keep stuff you missed in history class going. We
are moving now to a slightly later point on the
yearly calendar and across the globe to Japan, and we're
going to talk about the seven Lucky gods that are
(17:26):
associated with the New year. These Chichi Fukujin are a
mix of deities and one historical figure who traveled together
in a treasure ship from heaven into the human world
and offer good fortune for the new year. And according
to tradition, you should place a picture of these seven
lucky gods under your pillow on New Year's Eve to
ensure that they bring you good fortune in the year ahead.
(17:48):
The first mention of these deities and their grouping of
seven together is in fourteen twenty when a procession of
the seven Lucky Gods was staged. The first two gods
of this group that became popular were Ebisu and Daikoku,
and that's because the two of them are linked to
business prosperity. Since merchants are believed to have been the
(18:09):
first to adopt the seven Lucky gods, that makes sense
from there. The other gods were adopted by other groups
of people who wanted some representation of luck that correlated
to their work. According to one legend, these gods were
selected at the behest of the showgun yamts Tokugawa in
the sixteen hundreds to correlate to the seven god like
(18:29):
virtues that were laid out by the Buddhist priest tank A.
Those virtues were fortune, longevity, honesty, amiability, popularity, fortune, and dignity.
Ibisu is tied to the fishing and food industries, as
well as the virtue of honesty. He'll often see images
or sculptures of him holding a fishing rod in his
right hand and a fish in his left, although sometimes
(18:51):
it's also a fan. These accessories form a contrast against
his clothing, which is usually represented as brocaded courtwear. While
all the things these holding are more rustic, Visu is
unique and that he is the only member of the
seven Lucky Gods that is native to Japan, originating in
the Shinto religion. All of the others came from India's
Hindu belief system or China's Taoist Buddhist traditions. The Abesu
(19:16):
Co Festival is held every November. It's named for this deity,
and in the modern era, it's an event where merchants
pray for prosperity and good dealings. One origin story for
the festival, though, suggests that it was intended as a
time when merchants sold their wears. It discounted prices as
a way to appease the god of fair deals for
their profitable transactions throughout the rest of the year. Daikoku
(19:39):
Dan or Daikoku has roots in India's belief system and
was introduced in Japan in the ninth century. Daikoku is
based on Mahawkla, a manifestation of Shiva, and in the
Japanese pantheon, he's a god of prosperity in wealth, and
he represents the virtue of fortune and is normally depicted
standing on a bale or sometimes two bales of rice
(19:59):
whole ding a magic mallet which can produce money when
it strikes an object, and he sometimes also carries a
bang that is filled with money as well. And Daikoku
is sometimes named as Abesus Father, although there is not
consensus on the matter of ABSs parentage. Other people believe
that he came from a different set of circumstances. Bisha
Mountain appears in armor, which often leads to him being
(20:22):
described as the god of warriors, but really he's just
defending against evil and darkness, not a representative of war
or aggression. His virtue is dignity and he's usually depicted
as carrying some sort of a weapon, normally a spear
or a sword, as well as a pagoda representing faith.
He's sometimes posed the top two vanquished demons. Bisha Mountain
(20:43):
hails from India and is also revered by doctors, police
and soldiers. Fukurokuju is a Chinese scholar and is the
god of happiness and wealth, and the virtue that he
represents is longevity. Fukurokuju, who originated in the Taoist Buddhist tradition,
is said to be able to revive the dead, that
is a power that only he has among the seven
(21:04):
Lucky gods, and true to his scholarly ways, he keeps
a scroll tied to his walking stick, and he's a
short man, but he has a large head. He's often
accompanied by a sacred creature that also represents longevity, such
as a tortoise, a snake, a stork, or a white deer.
Duro Jean has the visage of an old man, which
aligns with the wisdom that's his virtue and which he
(21:26):
bestows on those who pray to him. He's sometimes confused
with the Kurokuju, since both of them are depicted as
elderly and being accompanied by deer. But kurokujus dear companion
is white and duro Jean's can companion is black, indicating
that's older and wiser. Jo Jean also has a little
vice and that he loves to drink, and he'll bestow
(21:47):
some of his wisdom on people who offer him wine.
I like that aspect of him. It's charming. There is
only one woman among the seven Lucky gods, and she
has Benton, goddess of art and knowledge. She's associated with
the virtue of amiability. In modern writings, you will often
see her virtue listed as joy. Benton wears flowing robes
(22:10):
and plays an instrument, usually a flute or the loot.
Like Bua, and Benton can be jealous, but she is
also compassionate. Musicians in particular have historically been very devoted
to Benton, with stories of some refusing to marry so
that she will not become jealous and take away their talent.
Hotel is the only one of the seven Lucky gods
that said to be based on an actual person, and
(22:33):
that's the Chinese monk Buddhai. This is the rounded, smiling
Buddha that you've probably seen depicted in any number of places.
It's a jolly character who represents popularity and magnanimity. He's
the god of both happiness and abundance. He carries a
bag of fortune, which is said to contain all the
things that are needed by man. One of the lessons
(22:55):
of his that abundance comes from simply being happy with
what you have. We mentioned at the beginning of this
section that if you want the seven Lucky Gods to
grace you, you should put their picture under your pillow.
But that is not the end of it. The first
week of the new year, uh, there is a tradition
where families travel to the temples of each of the deities.
That's a practice that dates back to the Edo period,
(23:16):
and it becomes something of a pilgrimage as the shrine
for each of the seven lucky gods has to be
visited to ensure that all kinds of luck is yours
in the new year. So here's to hoping that all
of our listeners have beautiful holidays no matter what you're celebrating,
and comes with some good fortune for all of us. Yes,
I hope, I hope. UM. For listener mail, I have
(23:38):
nothing to do with luck okay, but instead a fun
story about traffic lights. UM. This comes from our listener
father Daniel. He writes, Hello, Holly and Tracy. I have
enjoyed your podcast for a few years now, and a
couple of recent episodes touched indirectly on some New York
state history which I think you might find interesting. There's
a traffic light in Syracuse, New York, on Tipperary Hill
(23:59):
which is upside down, with the green on top and
the red on bottom. And I put upside down in
quotes because historically the Irish locals had seen the regular
arrangement of the signal read above green as a statement
about the supremacy of England read over Ireland green. Since
its installation in the signal was regularly vandalized, rocks were
(24:20):
thrown at it to bust the lights, and while it
was continually repaired, they needed a more permanent solution. Apparently,
a local alderman named John huck O Ryan was the
one who suggested putting the green on top and the
red on the bottom, which resulted in in the arrangement
of the only upside right traffic signal in the world
for color blind people, there is a sign warning that
(24:41):
the light is inverted. But unfortunately, in order to understand
the sign, you would also have to not be color blind. Whoops. Uh.
And to commemorate this history of vandalism and civil disobedience,
there is a charming bronze statue at the intersection of
an older man teaching a few young boys to throw
rocks at the light. Uh. That is a fascinating story,
he said. Secondly, I would like to thank you for
(25:03):
the episode about the Black Sox scandal. To commemorate the
one anniversary, not so much of the scandal, but of
Honest Eddie's honesty, Honest Eddie Murphy's hometown of Hancock, New
York placed a bronze statue of him in the town
square the weekend before last, and his grandson Ed and
other family were present for this dedication. I have attached
a photo of the front page of the Hancock Herald
which covered the event. Father Daniel, thank you so much
(25:25):
for those two tidbits. I um I uh am kind
of amused by the idea of busting a traffic light
as something to be commemorated with a statue. But you know,
every historical moment has its has its place in the
bigger story. So thank you so much for writing us.
If you would like to do that, you can do
(25:46):
so at our email which is History Podcast at I
heart radio dot com. Again, that is a new uh.
We used to be at a different address, so to
switch it over to the new one if we're in
your address book, and you can also find us everywhere
on social media. That remains the same app Missed in
History That is also our website, Missed in History dot com.
You can check us out as subscribers. We love subscribers.
(26:09):
You can do that on the I Heart Radio app,
at Apple Podcasts, or wherever it is you listen. Stuff
you Missed in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radios. How stuff Works. For more podcasts for my
heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of I Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hello, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Holly Fry and I'm Wilson and
Happy Holiday season, Tracy. Yes, it is after Thanksgiving, so
I feel okay about saying that. At least it will
(00:23):
be when this episode comes out. It's the last thing
we're recording before we actually have that holiday. Yeah, I don't.
I don't. We've talked about this, I think well back
when we're doing pop stuff, I mentioned I have no
calendar issues with people saying happy holiday greetings in July
because I grew up going to craft stores where the
(00:44):
holidays are always out. Sure, so I don't. I don't
have any concerns. And I my house is literally Halloween
three and sixty five days a year, so to me,
the holidays are a very fluid concept. But we are
officially in December, which is when most people would get
into the holiday spirit. And back in sixteen, we did
a series of three holiday episodes two sixteen that we
(01:08):
called the Crampus and Friends Holiday Special and we've missed them,
so this year we are bringing it back for a
part four just for expectations management. For any listeners who
were not listening back then and maybe haven't heard those episodes,
this episode does not feature Crampus. Crampus kicked off the
whole thing for us, and that's what we call it
Crampus and Friends. Uh So we covered him in part one.
(01:30):
You can go back and listen to that or to
all three if you really want to travel the world
of holiday traditions. But today we're going to have a
mix of Scandinavian and Japanese traditions as we cover the Nissa,
the Yule Goat, and the Seven Lucky Gods. So Scandinavian
folklore features a familiar looking little fellow who goes by
a slightly different name depending on what country you're in.
(01:53):
In Norway he's known as Nissa. In Sweden, he's Tempta,
and he's Tempted in Finland. They are pretty consistent, these
depictions and how they're characterized across those various countries. The
names are just a little different, and the word Nissa
is said to be a derivation of the name Nils
Nicholas essentially, and Tempta shares a route with the Swedish
(02:15):
word tampt, which is a land parcel or a homestead,
and the tampta or nissa is a solitary creature. It
turns both helpful and mischievous, and you will see why
it's tied to the concept of homes and homesteading. Nissan
are protective entities that help families, and they particularly help
with the farm homes to care for the livestock and
(02:36):
the land. There's a particularly strong affinity on the part
of nissa for horses, and he'll be sure to take
extra special care of horses, sometimes even braiding their manes
and tails to keep them looking their best. They're also
considered generally pretty lucky. If a nissa settles on your land,
he said to attract good fortune and to drive away evil.
(02:58):
And a nissa is a diminutive spray. He tops out
at about three feet that's about a meter tall, and
he dresses in simple farmer's garb of a tunic fitted
pants and boots, plus a cap on his head, and
he sometimes depicted as a little bit raggedy. Usually his
cap is red, but some depictions show the nissa with
variations in colors, although they're generally bright shades and red
(03:20):
is almost always the color of at least one of
his garments, and if you give a nissa new clothes,
that nissa might feel too fancy to do any works,
So definitely don't do that. As I was looking for
artwork to go with this episode, the depictions of nissa
reminded me of gnomes a little bit. They're very much
There's a reason that they have been appropriated into garden
(03:42):
sculpture because everyone wants one of these. If you have
a nissa, you have good fortune in a tidy home.
So yeah. So the face of the nissa is that
of an elderly man with a full beard full of
white hair, although in some places like Denmark, they might
have clean shaven chins. Where did the us to come from?
That is a little unclear, although some versions of the
(04:03):
folklore suggest that a nissa is the spirit of the
enterprising farmer who originally cleared and settled the land where
he lives, and that he remains on that land to
protect the generations of farmers that follow and ensure that
his work is not undone. But people who live in
cities might also have a tampton or nissa, and in
these cases they just hunker down under the floorboards during
(04:25):
the warmer months and then come out as the winter
holidays approach. Uh. Yeah, they come out at night. They
do some chores, they take care of you h And
in exchange for all of this kind help, the family
has its own side of the bargain to hold up.
It has to take care of the Nissa and show
their appreciation by leaving him a buttery bowl of porridge
to eat on occasion, and in recent times this offering
(04:48):
has come to be a Christmas Eve tradition specifically. And
you should absolutely not look for the Nissa because they
do not like to be seen and they will turn
invisible to avoid it. So also don't mess Vanessa. If
you don't fulfill your duties with the porridge provisions, or
if you behave in a way that he doesn't like,
including trying to see him or undoing the braids that
(05:09):
he's left in your horse's hair, you might incur his wrath.
And while you might delight in the Nissa doing chores,
don't ever interrupt him while he's carrying these duties out,
because if Vanessa is angered, he might bite, and there
is venom in that bite that can only be tempered
with a magical antidote. Yes, adorable and poisonous uh the
(05:31):
best of holiday things. You also want to make sure
that you do your part in keeping an orderly home
because that is what nissa like. And if you spill anything,
you have to give a yell to your nissa and
let him know so that he doesn't slip see above red.
Getting angry and uh and irritated Nissa might hide your
things or inactive bit of trickery in order to get revenge.
(05:53):
But there are some even scarier stories of nissan that
tell tales of them injuring livestock or in some cases
even killing animals if the farmer they belong to you
has acted poorly. One such instance of a nissa being
particularly cruel is from a legend about a servant girl
purposely trying to fold the household nissa. She hid the
(06:14):
butter in his Christmas porridge down at the bottom of
the bowl instead of putting it on top, and thinking
that he had been stiffed on his butter, the nissa
killed the family's cow, but then went ahead and ate
the porridge, and then, realizing that he had been served
the butter just down at the bottom of the bowl,
he stole a cow from a neighbor to replace the
one he had killed, So kind of a mixed bag
(06:35):
behavior wise. Uh, your Nissa is great, but your neighbor's
Nissa you don't want any part. Yes, this is also
kind of a two wrongs don't make a right situation right,
And this ties into some stories you'll occasionally hear about
Scandinavia during Christianization and how that impacted the Nissa's story.
(06:56):
The Nissas started to be viewed in some ways as
negatively and started to be associated by some extremists as
a servant or an associate of the devil. So welcoming
Enissa during this time when they were viewed with all
this suspicion was considered to be playing a very dangerous
game with the fate of your soul. And in this transition,
in some areas where they reviewed this way, success started
(07:19):
to be targeted as having some sort of sinister aspect
to it because Nissa must be involved, and that meant
that you were consorting with something that consorted with evil.
And this also ties into that Lord we just talked about,
that Enissa might steal from one farmstead to benefit the
farmer that he lived with. The Nissa has evolved over time.
It was in the middle of the nineteenth century that
(07:40):
these sprites came to be linked to Christmas, and in
some areas a different entity branched off of the Nissa legend,
known as the Ulnissa, which is closer to a Santa
Claus entity. Yeah, there as there are with Nissa, where
you'll see them as Tompta or tom too. Uh. You
can see you Lenissa and their other uh sort of
(08:00):
Yule root names in different countries. But still this idea
of this gnome like home sprite persisted in Scandinavia. In
a one Swedish novelist Victor Roderberg wrote the poem Thompton,
which became very popular, and it also cemented the idea
of Toompton or Nissen as farm spirits in modern folklore.
(08:21):
That has also been adapted a number of times. You
can find modern storybook versions of it which are really
really sweet. And this also added to the lore of
Toompton and Nissen by characterizing these helpful spirits as being
philosophically thoughtful about the people that they watch over. Here's
the translation of one of the stanzas, so he has
seen them sire and son year by year in that
(08:43):
room there sleep first as children everyone. But whence did
they come there? This generation to that was air blossomed,
grew old and was gone. But where that is the
hopeless burning riddle ever returning. This poem also established the
tempted as a nocturnal creature who watches over things while
the humans rest, and it concludes with the lines now
(09:06):
sinks the moon in night, profound snow on the furs,
and pines around, snow on the roofs is gleaming. All
but the goblin are dreaming. Coming up, we're going to
talk about goats and fire, but first we will take
a quick break for a sponsor break. Today. People that
(09:30):
are raised in the US probably think that You'll is
just a synonym for Christmas. I did for quite a
long time, But originally Ule was, of course a multi
day pagan winter solstice festival. As Christianity spread throughout Europe,
this celebration slowly transition to the Nativity feast and became
associated with Christmas rather than its origin point. And a
(09:51):
goat has played various roles and seasonal celebrations going back
to You'll, Although the precise origins of the goats presence
are un lear. There are a lot of different associations
with goats and Scandinavian legend and that could be part
of the origin of goats as a symbolic part of
winter holidays. For example, Thor's chariot is said to have
(10:12):
been pulled by two goats in Norse mythology, and as
Father Christmas was adopted into winter celebrations and some Scandinavian traditions,
he rides a goat. Going back to the sixteen hundreds,
there was a tradition in Danish farming villages for one
of the young men in the area to dress as
a goat during Yule, complete with a goat skull on
his head, and go door to door, essentially bursting into
(10:34):
people's houses and creating sort of a fun havoc. This
havoc generally included throwing around some insults and gently overturning
some furniture maybe, but the goat could be placated with
beer and snacks and then sated, he would move on
to the next house to do some carousing there. A
less raucous and more benevolent version of this tradition involved
(10:55):
the village goats stopping by Yule parties and doling out
gifts to good children. Goats made out of straw or
other natural materials became holiday descor over time, sometimes with
an accompanying story that the goat was keeping an eye
on things and making sure holiday preparation was being handled properly.
Eventually they became available in all sizes, from ornaments to
(11:17):
massive centerpieces large enough to decorate town squares. Yes, some
people still like to play the game where you hide
a yule a small Yule goat in your neighbor's house.
The idea is like you're being watched and then it's
your job to then pass that goat onto someone else,
which is sort of fun. But speaking of that massive
scale that Tracy just mentioned, that is what has made
(11:39):
the Yule goat his his most famous in the last
half century. In nineteen sixty six, the town of Yavle, Sweden,
erected a giant goat in its castle square, and that's
something that the town has done every year since, starting
with the first Sunday of Advent, and that practice has
taken on its own story, in part because of an
unofficial offshoot this that some citizens of the town have
(12:01):
adopted of setting the goat on fire that first year.
The Yavla goat was installed on December one, and at
the stroke of midnight, as the new year arrived, it
went up in flames. The goat arsonist was identified and
charged with vandalism. For a couple of years, the You'll
goat went up and lasted through the entire holiday season,
(12:22):
but on New Year's Eve of nineteen sixty nine the
goat was once again set on fire, although that time
the perpetrator was not identified. The goat erected in nineteen
seventy only lasted six hours. A new goat for the
nineteen seventy season was quickly built and put into its
place in Castle Square, and the rest of the nineteen
seventies were frankly rough on the goat. According to the
(12:46):
Yavla tourism site, over that decade it imploded one year,
it was smashed two bits. On several occasions, it was
rammed with a car, and it suffered several unknown fates.
It also burned again, once in nineteen seventy four and
again in nineteen seventy nine, when it went up in
flames before it was even put up. A second nineteen
(13:07):
seventy nine goat also destroyed throughout the nineteen eighties. The
goat had a similarly precarious life. Even when it was
saturated with fire retardant materials, arsonists still managed to burn
it down. In nineteen eighty nine, the raw materials for
the goat were set on fire before it was even assembled.
The nineteen eighties did see the Yavlay You'll goat make
(13:28):
it into the Guinness Book of World Records for the
largest straw goat in the world. Another development in the
nineteen eighties was the construction of two goats each year
that started in nineteen eighty six. Yeah, when the goat
tradition started in nineteen sixty six, it was originally the
work of the city's tradesmen, but after those first few
years of their work being destroyed, they just didn't want
(13:49):
to do it any longer. I cannot blame them, So
in nineteen seventy one, the Natural Science Society of Vazascotland
took over the annual building of the goat. But then
in nineteen the six the tradesmen of Yavla once again
started constructing giant yule goats, and at that point, as
a rivalry between the two goat building groups, began in
(14:10):
Both of the goats were set on fire eight days
after they were set up. The Tradesmen's goat was rebuilt,
only to be burned again. The same arsonist was found
to have set all three fires and was arrested. Another
interesting thing started happening in the nineteen nineties, and that's
some of the citizens of Yavla started setting up guard
details for the goats to try to deter these would
(14:32):
be arsonists and pranksters. The two thousands and the twenty
teens have seen a mixed bag of fires and survival
for the Yule Goat. In two thousand five, the Yule
Goat was besieged by flaming arrows, which were shot by
attackers that were dressed as gingerbread men and Father Christmas
in would be kidnappers trying to bribe the man who
(14:53):
was guarding the Yule goat into looking the other way
while they attempted to airlift it with a helicopter. That
guard could not be bought. Thankfully, the goat actually went
on a little trip. It traveled to China, where he
was visited by more than four hundred thousand people during
his time on display there. The Yavla Yule Goat has
become something of a celebrity and now has a webcam
(15:15):
which has been hacked by saboteurs at least once. It
also has a Twitter presence and an Instagram account and
a dedicated spokesperson so you can keep tabs on how
he's doing. While it is a constant battle to keep
this giant goat safe, it's also become a significant tourist
to draw in an economic driver for Yavla, so it's
unlikely that they will end this tradition anytime soon. Yeah.
(15:39):
I have seen multiple things online like in discussion or
comments on articles or the like why do they keep
doing this? It's he's expensive and like a pain in
the neck because it gets burnt so often. And it's
like if you look at Yavla's main like city website,
a lot of it is about tourism related to the goats,
so I don't think they want to give that up. Also,
(16:00):
it's beautiful, uh, and the goat has gotten bigger and
bigger over the years. His height at this point is
thirteen meters that's about forty two point six ft anyways,
three point six tons. It takes an estimated one thousand
man hours and an entire truckload of straw to build
the goat with the straw affixed to a metal frame base.
In and eighteen, the goat made it all the way
(16:23):
through the holiday season. Intact, here's to hoping in twenty
nineteen this will also be true. Hopefully, as of when
this episode comes out, the goat has not already been
set up and burned down. I'm not sure what the
schedule is, right, I hope not, because you know, as
we said, there's uh there are our webcams and people
(16:44):
protecting them now and it's apparently worked for a couple
of years, but you never know when a gingerbread man
with a flaming arrow might show up. There's also one
story of an American tourist who set him on fire ones,
which is embarrassing and horrifying. We are going to switch
away from your in traditions and kind of make our
way to the next set of holiday characters in another
(17:05):
part of the world. But before we do that, we're
gonna pause for a word from one of the sponsors
that keep stuff you missed in history class going. We
are moving now to a slightly later point on the
yearly calendar and across the globe to Japan, and we're
going to talk about the seven Lucky gods that are
(17:26):
associated with the New year. These Chichi Fukujin are a
mix of deities and one historical figure who traveled together
in a treasure ship from heaven into the human world
and offer good fortune for the new year. And according
to tradition, you should place a picture of these seven
lucky gods under your pillow on New Year's Eve to
ensure that they bring you good fortune in the year ahead.
(17:48):
The first mention of these deities and their grouping of
seven together is in fourteen twenty when a procession of
the seven Lucky Gods was staged. The first two gods
of this group that became popular were Ebisu and Daikoku,
and that's because the two of them are linked to
business prosperity. Since merchants are believed to have been the
(18:09):
first to adopt the seven Lucky gods, that makes sense
from there. The other gods were adopted by other groups
of people who wanted some representation of luck that correlated
to their work. According to one legend, these gods were
selected at the behest of the showgun yamts Tokugawa in
the sixteen hundreds to correlate to the seven god like
(18:29):
virtues that were laid out by the Buddhist priest tank A.
Those virtues were fortune, longevity, honesty, amiability, popularity, fortune, and dignity.
Ibisu is tied to the fishing and food industries, as
well as the virtue of honesty. He'll often see images
or sculptures of him holding a fishing rod in his
right hand and a fish in his left, although sometimes
(18:51):
it's also a fan. These accessories form a contrast against
his clothing, which is usually represented as brocaded courtwear. While
all the things these holding are more rustic, Visu is
unique and that he is the only member of the
seven Lucky Gods that is native to Japan, originating in
the Shinto religion. All of the others came from India's
Hindu belief system or China's Taoist Buddhist traditions. The Abesu
(19:16):
Co Festival is held every November. It's named for this deity,
and in the modern era, it's an event where merchants
pray for prosperity and good dealings. One origin story for
the festival, though, suggests that it was intended as a
time when merchants sold their wears. It discounted prices as
a way to appease the god of fair deals for
their profitable transactions throughout the rest of the year. Daikoku
(19:39):
Dan or Daikoku has roots in India's belief system and
was introduced in Japan in the ninth century. Daikoku is
based on Mahawkla, a manifestation of Shiva, and in the
Japanese pantheon, he's a god of prosperity in wealth, and
he represents the virtue of fortune and is normally depicted
standing on a bale or sometimes two bales of rice
(19:59):
whole ding a magic mallet which can produce money when
it strikes an object, and he sometimes also carries a
bang that is filled with money as well. And Daikoku
is sometimes named as Abesus Father, although there is not
consensus on the matter of ABSs parentage. Other people believe
that he came from a different set of circumstances. Bisha
Mountain appears in armor, which often leads to him being
(20:22):
described as the god of warriors, but really he's just
defending against evil and darkness, not a representative of war
or aggression. His virtue is dignity and he's usually depicted
as carrying some sort of a weapon, normally a spear
or a sword, as well as a pagoda representing faith.
He's sometimes posed the top two vanquished demons. Bisha Mountain
(20:43):
hails from India and is also revered by doctors, police
and soldiers. Fukurokuju is a Chinese scholar and is the
god of happiness and wealth, and the virtue that he
represents is longevity. Fukurokuju, who originated in the Taoist Buddhist tradition,
is said to be able to revive the dead, that
is a power that only he has among the seven
(21:04):
Lucky gods, and true to his scholarly ways, he keeps
a scroll tied to his walking stick, and he's a
short man, but he has a large head. He's often
accompanied by a sacred creature that also represents longevity, such
as a tortoise, a snake, a stork, or a white deer.
Duro Jean has the visage of an old man, which
aligns with the wisdom that's his virtue and which he
(21:26):
bestows on those who pray to him. He's sometimes confused
with the Kurokuju, since both of them are depicted as
elderly and being accompanied by deer. But kurokujus dear companion
is white and duro Jean's can companion is black, indicating
that's older and wiser. Jo Jean also has a little
vice and that he loves to drink, and he'll bestow
(21:47):
some of his wisdom on people who offer him wine.
I like that aspect of him. It's charming. There is
only one woman among the seven Lucky gods, and she
has Benton, goddess of art and knowledge. She's associated with
the virtue of amiability. In modern writings, you will often
see her virtue listed as joy. Benton wears flowing robes
(22:10):
and plays an instrument, usually a flute or the loot.
Like Bua, and Benton can be jealous, but she is
also compassionate. Musicians in particular have historically been very devoted
to Benton, with stories of some refusing to marry so
that she will not become jealous and take away their talent.
Hotel is the only one of the seven Lucky gods
that said to be based on an actual person, and
(22:33):
that's the Chinese monk Buddhai. This is the rounded, smiling
Buddha that you've probably seen depicted in any number of places.
It's a jolly character who represents popularity and magnanimity. He's
the god of both happiness and abundance. He carries a
bag of fortune, which is said to contain all the
things that are needed by man. One of the lessons
(22:55):
of his that abundance comes from simply being happy with
what you have. We mentioned at the beginning of this
section that if you want the seven Lucky Gods to
grace you, you should put their picture under your pillow.
But that is not the end of it. The first
week of the new year, uh, there is a tradition
where families travel to the temples of each of the deities.
That's a practice that dates back to the Edo period,
(23:16):
and it becomes something of a pilgrimage as the shrine
for each of the seven lucky gods has to be
visited to ensure that all kinds of luck is yours
in the new year. So here's to hoping that all
of our listeners have beautiful holidays no matter what you're celebrating,
and comes with some good fortune for all of us. Yes,
I hope, I hope. UM. For listener mail, I have
(23:38):
nothing to do with luck okay, but instead a fun
story about traffic lights. UM. This comes from our listener
father Daniel. He writes, Hello, Holly and Tracy. I have
enjoyed your podcast for a few years now, and a
couple of recent episodes touched indirectly on some New York
state history which I think you might find interesting. There's
a traffic light in Syracuse, New York, on Tipperary Hill
(23:59):
which is upside down, with the green on top and
the red on bottom. And I put upside down in
quotes because historically the Irish locals had seen the regular
arrangement of the signal read above green as a statement
about the supremacy of England read over Ireland green. Since
its installation in the signal was regularly vandalized, rocks were
(24:20):
thrown at it to bust the lights, and while it
was continually repaired, they needed a more permanent solution. Apparently,
a local alderman named John huck O Ryan was the
one who suggested putting the green on top and the
red on the bottom, which resulted in in the arrangement
of the only upside right traffic signal in the world
for color blind people, there is a sign warning that
(24:41):
the light is inverted. But unfortunately, in order to understand
the sign, you would also have to not be color blind. Whoops. Uh.
And to commemorate this history of vandalism and civil disobedience,
there is a charming bronze statue at the intersection of
an older man teaching a few young boys to throw
rocks at the light. Uh. That is a fascinating story,
he said. Secondly, I would like to thank you for
(25:03):
the episode about the Black Sox scandal. To commemorate the
one anniversary, not so much of the scandal, but of
Honest Eddie's honesty, Honest Eddie Murphy's hometown of Hancock, New
York placed a bronze statue of him in the town
square the weekend before last, and his grandson Ed and
other family were present for this dedication. I have attached
a photo of the front page of the Hancock Herald
which covered the event. Father Daniel, thank you so much
(25:25):
for those two tidbits. I um I uh am kind
of amused by the idea of busting a traffic light
as something to be commemorated with a statue. But you know,
every historical moment has its has its place in the
bigger story. So thank you so much for writing us.
If you would like to do that, you can do
(25:46):
so at our email which is History Podcast at I
heart radio dot com. Again, that is a new uh.
We used to be at a different address, so to
switch it over to the new one if we're in
your address book, and you can also find us everywhere
on social media. That remains the same app Missed in
History That is also our website, Missed in History dot com.
You can check us out as subscribers. We love subscribers.
(26:09):
You can do that on the I Heart Radio app,
at Apple Podcasts, or wherever it is you listen. Stuff
you Missed in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radios. How stuff Works. For more podcasts for my
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