BIZARRE CHRISTMAS CARDS...
- Thread starter fubar57
- Start date
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Oh boy...
at6
1st Sergeant
The Krampus be with you.
mikewint
Captain
By today's standards truly weird but then have you ever actually read any of the original Mother Goose Tales or those collected by the Brothers Grimm? Or just the highly sanitized Disney versions? Hint: the prince doesn't just kiss Sleeping Beauty.
What are IMHO weird are the Family Christmas Photos:
What are IMHO weird are the Family Christmas Photos:
bobbysocks
Chief Master Sergeant
i have seen the dead bird thing before. iirc it was big around the turn of the last century or early 1900s and it wasn't used for just Christmas but birthdays and other big events...its a wish for good luck, good fortunes, or the start of something new. it would be interesting to see how it all began.....maybe birds died at the end of some calamity...plague or something and that shows bad times have ended.
mikewint
Captain
Bobby, the image of a dead bird in the snow is similar to the popular "Babe in the Woods" design portraying children who are in their mortal sleep in the forest, and may have likewise been a call to empathy for the less fortunate. Cards with such a design were certain to elicit Victorian sympathy and may reference common stories of poor children freezing to death at Christmas. It's worth noting that the imagery may also come from the popular 18th-century English rhyme "Who Killed Cock Robin," which includes the funeral of the slain bird.
However, it wasn't necessarily a symbol of mortality. The birds are often robins and wrens. Strangly at one time killing a wren or robin was a good-luck ritual performed in late December. The Irish St. Stephen's Day on December 26 is known as "Wren Day," with a traditional hunt of the bird. So receiving a card with the little prone bird, feet curled in rigor mortis, could be meant to wish nothing more than good cheer on the new year.
However, it wasn't necessarily a symbol of mortality. The birds are often robins and wrens. Strangly at one time killing a wren or robin was a good-luck ritual performed in late December. The Irish St. Stephen's Day on December 26 is known as "Wren Day," with a traditional hunt of the bird. So receiving a card with the little prone bird, feet curled in rigor mortis, could be meant to wish nothing more than good cheer on the new year.
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