Drawing Diary: 15 and 16 November

15 November: Winter Legends

Very soon, SInterklaas will be back in the Netherlands. Our old bishop tradition is always fun and a bit difficult to explain to others. Pantxi told about their Basque winter legend. Their figure is called Olentzero, which means "the good one". He is an ancient charcoal-burner that lives high up in the mountains. On christmas eve he comes down to the villages to give gifts to the people and party with them, because he is happy that Jesus has come to earth. 

26 November: Hawaii party

We threw a Hawaii-themed party at our place today. We hung bananas from the trees in the hallway and had lots of fruits and juices. We started with everyone in the kitchen, and slowly we made little groups all over the house. In was in the Travel-channel/Animal-planet room (because it had a big couch). We were sharing travel-stories for a long time. Also the topic of baby blue whales came up. They are 7 meters tall when they are born.

Folk tales, myths and legends are still a weakness of mine.

Since I started reading Chesterton and MacDonald, I no longer think of folk-tales as weak diluted versions of bible-stories. That used to be my attitude. These men have shown me that folk-tales are powerful pointers to the big events in Gods story with us here on earth. The Chronicles of Narnia are another well know example of this.

Most of the good stories have already been told. New christmas stories seem only to glimmer like a thin sheet of ice, without having the strength to carry a real message.

From a grown-up point of view, Catalonia probably has the weirdest winter tradition. It´s Caga Tió, the "shit log".