Bok "The Dead of Winter" Engelska
Av: Sarah Clegg
Förlag: Faber & Faber
As winter comes and the hours of darkness overtake the light, we seek
out warmth, good food, and good company. But beneath the jollity and
bright enchantment of the festive season, there lurks a darker mood -
one that has found expression over the centuries in a host of strange
and unsettling traditions and lore. Here, Sarah Clegg takes us on a
journey through midwinter to explore the lesser-known Christmas
traditions, from English mummers plays and Austrian Krampus runs, to
modern pagan rituals at Stonehenge and the night in Finland when a young
girl is crowned with candles as St Lucy - a martyred Christian girl who
also appears as a witch leading a procession of the dead. At wassails
and hoodenings and winter gatherings, attended by ghastly, grinning
horses, snatching monsters and mysterious visitors, we discover how
these traditions originated and how they changed through the centuries,
and we ask ourselves: if we can't keep the darkness entirely at bay,
might it be fun to let a little in?
