Goodbye to Christmas 2009

Tonight Rick had a meeting at church I wasn´t involved in so I stayed home until 19:50 when I left to go across the bridge to see the Jól lads return home for this year. For 12 days before Christmas the lads all come one a day to scare the kids and give them potatoes in their shoes if they have been naughty, and little gifts if they have been good. Footwear seems to be the theme in a lot of countries at Christmas time, stockings hung by the chimney, shoes outside doors, shoes in the windows, interesting! The day after Christmas the lads start to go back to the mountain where they live with their mother Gríla and her 3rd husband, (she ate the other two when a famine occurred in Iceland in the 1600s).

Gríla was there tonight down by the Library. The boys (I love the way they are called boys since they are over 300 years old, but they still live with their Mom so maybe they are just little boys) all assembled across the street from the library and lit a big bonfire. They then took torches and lit them off of the bonfire and did a little dance then walked in a circle before going out onto the street to dance around the round about. They followed a truck that carried trolls, fairy's and little people (these are the children of Eve that she hid from God when he came to visit because they were not clean.) On their way back down the street past the library, people got behind each lad and walked with him until there were probably 100 people or more walking down the street. They then all headed down to the high school where there is a huge bonfire waiting and they will sing songs and dance, then put out their torches and that is the official end of Christmas in Iceland. I wonder if that is how the 12 days of Christmas started???

The fireworks pictures are from our apartment and have been going off every night for at least a week. I always miss the big displays looking for the camera.