folktales – RANDOM Times •

14# Iceland’s Yule Lads: like 13 small amazing Santas

14 Dec 202014 Dec 2020 Nathan

If you arent’t lucky enough to have been born in Iceland, or not have visited the island through a Christmas season, you probably won’t have never heard of the Yule Lads. One by one they’re said to visit children in the 13 days leading to Christmas. Children leave their shoes on the window, and if they’re good they’re filled with candy and toys, while if they’re bad they get a raw potato. They’re also to leave specific treats for each lad, corresponding to his personality: there’s Stekkjarstaur, translated as Sheep…

A walk through the picturesque Windmills of Kinderdijk, the Netherlands

20 Sep 201919 Sep 2019 Anya016

If tyou think “Holland”, you’ve probably already conjured the iconic images of tulips and windmills. And it’s very likely that the windmills you’re envisioning right now are that of Kinderdijk! Even if it may sound odd the name Kinderdijk translates in Dutch to mean “children’s dike.” According to a local legend, after a particularly terrible flood in the 15th century, known as Saint Elizabeth flood of 1421, the farming region of Grote Hollandse Waard flooded, but the Alblasserwaard polder stayed unflooded. As story goes, when the storm had subsided, a…