Christmas Folklore of the Families of Students in the Dartmouth Community

Introduction:

  • Our collection project centered on discovering peoples familial and cultural folklore focused on the Christmas holiday.  These traditions vary extensively across geographical locations and we tried to include people from different countries so as to provide a comprehensive snapshot of different people’s traditions.  We asked people about their classic legend of Christmas and who the Christmas figures were in their country or beliefs.  This varied from the many answers of Santa that we procured, to the obscure Tomte or Nisse that exist in Norway.  We also asked them about any superstitions that they might have surrounding the holiday time and whether their family had any traditional meals.  By doing this we were able to get some pieces of customary folklore, the legends and superstitions, as well as some familial folklore, the traditional dishes.  Through this process we discovered how different peoples celebration of a common holiday can be.

Presentation:

Items:

Legends of Christmas

Familial Folklore Meals

Superstitions

 

  • Collectors:
  • 💡Alec Vaules
  • Clay Chatham

Tags/Keywords

  • Christmas, Superstitions, Legends, Meals