I’m half Danish/half Norwegian, living in Denmark. The tradition of burning a straw witch on a bonfire on Skt. Hans Aften (St. Johns Eve), during the midsummer, is still being practiced in some places (adding a straw witch to the bonfire has lessened in later years). This is supposedly because witches etc were thought to be more active on holy days and they wanted to discourage witches from landing on their way to gather spell ingredients or going to witchy meet-ups at Bloksbjerg or Troms Kirke.
My grandmother is from Germany (Würselen), but my mom and I were born and raised here in Canada and Påskris are one of the traditions we always did growing up (though we didn't call it Påskris. My mom just said it was a german tradition). We also had a little easter tree with a bunch of tiny wooden springtime ornaments we would put up every year. It's one of my favourite childhood memories.
Thank yo u so much! ❤ I made my own, or so I thought. I have a friendship with a Birch tree in my yard, so that was my Yule tree. I took it outsude for the birds at Spring and filled a basket wuth all I am greatful for from Winter. Each symboluzed a lesson. I used chovolate sunflower seeds to symbolize the things I am birthing. I felt called to put out featthrs and a crystal egg. I did sonething out of my conf9rt zone in my ritual for renewal. I put Forget Me Nots too. They needed to be wedded out of the garden. One of the twigs fell off and it looks just like Fehu or Algiz, so that went in. I also debated when to celebrate Spring, thinking about Scandenavian climate. I thought about combining Spring, April Fools Day, and Easter and honoring Loki with the idea that as new life hapoens in every teansition There is Chaos to follow. This video lets me know I'm on the right track. I know not wg at I do. L9l of course, I always pau attention to the Swedish traditions.
I used to love the children's books of "Die Kleine Hexe" (The Little Witch) and it was always all about her being allowed to join in on Wallpurgisnacht celebrations. 😂
OHHH yeaaaaaah !! how did i forget about her !! unfortunely, I didn't have access to many to her casettes . we did have all Bibi Blocksberg casettes . I loved the one where she flies to the Brocken and celebrates Walpurgisnacht and her father comes along ... heee hee I was thrilled to find out Walpurgisnach is actually celebrated and the brocken does exist #lifegoals
I'm danish, and I know about the påskeris and gækkebrev as well. We made those in school and kindergarden :) Our påskeris usually was hanged with sweets and colourful paper as well, and we were told to wake our parents with it (maybe where the "beating" comes from), but I always was too lazy to do that. Also, I remember this being a thing around "fastelavn" and not necessarily Easter. But maybe that's just me remembering it weird. Idk I always really liked the gækkebrev. In elementary school, we would ask each other to deliver the letters so as to not reveal who it's actually from. As a "punishment" the guesser had to give a chocolate egg, but if they we're able to guess it right, they would get one instead. You could give hints, which made it more fun. F.x. reveal a letter, or provide dots for the first and last name. The style of the letter and drawings, or other poems, etc. could also give hints about who it was from. I hope that helps someone ♡ And thank you for the nice video^^
I'm from Switzerland and I also grew up with the Påskris tradition. We used to call it the easter tree (like a christmas tree) and we always used widow twigs for it because they get these fluffy grey blossoms.
In my family (no known Scandinavian ancestors in recent history😞), we did something similar to Pâskris, but with "pussy willow" branches (genus Salix) in bloom. The fuzzy catkins were the source of the name, due to their resemblance to kitten paws, and were a symbol of life returning to the world😊. I still get nostalgic when I see willows and sallows erupting with their fuzzy, greyish white catkins, and sometimes collect a branch if it's broken
I was talking about traditions with my father today after watching this video and he actually said this is something his family did! We are Norsk, and he grew up in Nordland.
I'm from Denmark and yes the gækkebrev part is correct. But the most common "punishment" is a chocolate egg to the person who wrote the gækkebrev. I haven't heard of the other kinds of punishments at all, so thats how common the chocolate egg thing is. Also the påskeris is also a thing we do in Denmark - at least when I was a child. I'm 29 now. The common thing when I and my friends did it we were supposed to sneak in and wake up our parents with "beating" them with the påskeris (very lightly, you know, just for fun for all) at the day of easter.. I dont remember what day of the easter days but yeah.
Oh thank you for the feedback! If you also know about the Påskris that would definitely explain why I grew up with it, too… the town I’m from is at the Danish border and has immense amounts of Danish culture and traditions because that part of Germany was Danish up until 150 years ago
Funny that you mentioned the German folklore around the Brocken mountain, because I'm currently writing a research paper for uni on that exact topic Let me just say, that rabbit hole goes deeeep!
The story of whipping oneself reminded me of Luther, which reminded me that my Norwegian line was so Lutheran that they built the first Lutheran church in the Wisconsin town they emigrated to. I don't know if they whipped themselves though, I wish all that knowledge hadn't been lost. My grandmother would have known about older traditions.
Hi! Im Swedish and was thinking about the ”saving spring” folk tale you mention. It could be the same origin as ”gumman Tö och prinsessan Vår” in the childrens’ books by Elsa Beskow.
Here in England/Britain/United Kingdom or whatever they call this place nowadays . We also have big bonfires. Not in spring though. We have them every November 5 . This is because Geal Fawkes tried to blow up the houses of parliament. We know most countries would look at this as an act of terrorism. But most of the English Irish Scottish & Welsh thought that was such a great thing. Even though he failed, the people believed & still do. That this courageous act deserves celebrating. So now every year bonfires are built & fireworks are let off in honour of Geal Fawkes. There are two famous sayings in England. If the Ravens ever leave the tower of London, London will fall . Plus if the houses of parliament or any one that works there does anything productive for England or anywhere else in the world. The people would no longer celebrate the most famous act of terrorism. As we can see the houses of parliament still have done nothing very productive for Britain or the world since the day Geal Flakes failed. They say that they have conquered more lands & fought in over 80 wars since. World War Two . The people still don't believe this is a productive thing. I like your traditional folk lore story though. 👍💚
Funny, in the Netherlands we have Easter branches as well, but we use corkscrew hazel branches, instead of birch. I wonder if there's a reason for this difference? 🤔
I’m half Danish/half Norwegian, living in Denmark. The tradition of burning a straw witch on a bonfire on Skt. Hans Aften (St. Johns Eve), during the midsummer, is still being practiced in some places (adding a straw witch to the bonfire has lessened in later years). This is supposedly because witches etc were thought to be more active on holy days and they wanted to discourage witches from landing on their way to gather spell ingredients or going to witchy meet-ups at Bloksbjerg or Troms Kirke.
My grandmother is from Germany (Würselen), but my mom and I were born and raised here in Canada and Påskris are one of the traditions we always did growing up (though we didn't call it Påskris. My mom just said it was a german tradition). We also had a little easter tree with a bunch of tiny wooden springtime ornaments we would put up every year. It's one of my favourite childhood memories.
Thank yo u so much! ❤ I made my own, or so I thought. I have a friendship with a Birch tree in my yard, so that was my Yule tree. I took it outsude for the birds at Spring and filled a basket wuth all I am greatful for from Winter. Each symboluzed a lesson. I used chovolate sunflower seeds to symbolize the things I am birthing. I felt called to put out featthrs and a crystal egg. I did sonething out of my conf9rt zone in my ritual for renewal. I put Forget Me Nots too. They needed to be wedded out of the garden. One of the twigs fell off and it looks just like Fehu or Algiz, so that went in. I also debated when to celebrate Spring, thinking about Scandenavian climate. I thought about combining Spring, April Fools Day, and Easter and honoring Loki with the idea that as new life hapoens in every teansition There is Chaos to follow. This video lets me know I'm on the right track. I know not wg at I do. L9l of course, I always pau attention to the Swedish traditions.
I used to love the children's books of "Die Kleine Hexe" (The Little Witch) and it was always all about her being allowed to join in on Wallpurgisnacht celebrations. 😂
Oh I remember those, too!!🥰🥰
@TheNorseWitch I loved them. In the Rhineland/Bergisches Land, we don't have Wallpurgisnacht, we have Carnival, so I only knew it from those books.
OHHH yeaaaaaah !! how did i forget about her !! unfortunely, I didn't have access to many to her casettes .
we did have all Bibi Blocksberg casettes . I loved the one where she flies to the Brocken and celebrates Walpurgisnacht and her father comes along ... heee hee I was thrilled to find out Walpurgisnach is actually celebrated and the brocken does exist #lifegoals
@@hausinnermagic Bibi was cool, too. My sister and my middle child enjoyed that series a lot. 💖
I'm danish, and I know about the påskeris and gækkebrev as well. We made those in school and kindergarden :)
Our påskeris usually was hanged with sweets and colourful paper as well, and we were told to wake our parents with it (maybe where the "beating" comes from), but I always was too lazy to do that.
Also, I remember this being a thing around "fastelavn" and not necessarily Easter. But maybe that's just me remembering it weird. Idk
I always really liked the gækkebrev. In elementary school, we would ask each other to deliver the letters so as to not reveal who it's actually from. As a "punishment" the guesser had to give a chocolate egg, but if they we're able to guess it right, they would get one instead.
You could give hints, which made it more fun. F.x. reveal a letter, or provide dots for the first and last name. The style of the letter and drawings, or other poems, etc. could also give hints about who it was from.
I hope that helps someone ♡
And thank you for the nice video^^
Oh I also wanted to talk about Fastelavn but people said February doesn’t count as spring 🥲🤣🤣
I'm from Switzerland and I also grew up with the Påskris tradition. We used to call it the easter tree (like a christmas tree) and we always used widow twigs for it because they get these fluffy grey blossoms.
In my family (no known Scandinavian ancestors in recent history😞), we did something similar to Pâskris, but with "pussy willow" branches (genus Salix) in bloom. The fuzzy catkins were the source of the name, due to their resemblance to kitten paws, and were a symbol of life returning to the world😊. I still get nostalgic when I see willows and sallows erupting with their fuzzy, greyish white catkins, and sometimes collect a branch if it's broken
I was talking about traditions with my father today after watching this video and he actually said this is something his family did! We are Norsk, and he grew up in Nordland.
I'm from Denmark and yes the gækkebrev part is correct. But the most common "punishment" is a chocolate egg to the person who wrote the gækkebrev. I haven't heard of the other kinds of punishments at all, so thats how common the chocolate egg thing is. Also the påskeris is also a thing we do in Denmark - at least when I was a child. I'm 29 now. The common thing when I and my friends did it we were supposed to sneak in and wake up our parents with "beating" them with the påskeris (very lightly, you know, just for fun for all) at the day of easter.. I dont remember what day of the easter days but yeah.
Oh thank you for the feedback! If you also know about the Påskris that would definitely explain why I grew up with it, too… the town I’m from is at the Danish border and has immense amounts of Danish culture and traditions because that part of Germany was Danish up until 150 years ago
Funny that you mentioned the German folklore around the Brocken mountain, because I'm currently writing a research paper for uni on that exact topic
Let me just say, that rabbit hole goes deeeep!
Oh it does 🤣
The story of whipping oneself reminded me of Luther, which reminded me that my Norwegian line was so Lutheran that they built the first Lutheran church in the Wisconsin town they emigrated to. I don't know if they whipped themselves though, I wish all that knowledge hadn't been lost. My grandmother would have known about older traditions.
Happy Easter! This night we flew to Blåkulla, it was one hell of a party 🎉😉
We have påskris here in Norway aswell, atleast in my family. Thanks for the great vid!
Hi! Im Swedish and was thinking about the ”saving spring” folk tale you mention. It could be the same origin as ”gumman Tö och prinsessan Vår” in the childrens’ books by Elsa Beskow.
Here in England/Britain/United Kingdom or whatever they call this place nowadays . We also have big bonfires. Not in spring though. We have them every November 5 . This is because Geal Fawkes tried to blow up the houses of parliament. We know most countries would look at this as an act of terrorism. But most of the English Irish Scottish & Welsh thought that was such a great thing. Even though he failed, the people believed & still do. That this courageous act deserves celebrating. So now every year bonfires are built & fireworks are let off in honour of Geal Fawkes. There are two famous sayings in England. If the Ravens ever leave the tower of London, London will fall . Plus if the houses of parliament or any one that works there does anything productive for England or anywhere else in the world. The people would no longer celebrate the most famous act of terrorism. As we can see the houses of parliament still have done nothing very productive for Britain or the world since the day Geal Flakes failed. They say that they have conquered more lands & fought in over 80 wars since. World War Two . The people still don't believe this is a productive thing. I like your traditional folk lore story though. 👍💚
All of this is so interesting I love it ❤❤
Glad you liked it 🥰
your videos are a huge inspiration, thank you for reconnecting me to my heritage and my passions
Wow very informative video
I didn't know about any of this
Thank you ❤
Funny, in the Netherlands we have Easter branches as well, but we use corkscrew hazel branches, instead of birch. I wonder if there's a reason for this difference? 🤔
Good question. I know birches are very common in Scandinavia, but I don’t know if hazel is more common in the netherlands?
They are both common trees over here.
❤❤❤❤❤❤❤😊😊😊
You have my subscription, I’m looking for you for help.
Does anyone else hear a raspy voice at 15:12 saying ”hallå” (Hello)??? 😮
That was me saying „I don’t know“ 😅
@@TheNorseWitchHahaha, I almost shit my pants the first time! 😂