Myths, Oddities & Ironies Archives - City Horse Woman https://cityhorsewoman.com/category/myths-oddities-ironies/ City Living Horse Woman Fri, 16 Dec 2022 13:45:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 Christmas Myths 2022 https://cityhorsewoman.com/christmas-myths-2022/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=christmas-myths-2022 https://cityhorsewoman.com/christmas-myths-2022/#respond Fri, 16 Dec 2022 13:10:16 +0000 https://cityhorsewoman.com/?p=3000 Christmas Myths & Other Trivia I hate to burst your bubble but here are several common misconceptions about Christmas beliefs/traditions: The song ‘Over The River And Through The Wood’ is NOT a Christmas song. The original title of the 1844 poem by Lydia Maria Child is “The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day” and the […]

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]]> Christmas Myths
& Other Trivia

I hate to burst your bubble but here are several
common misconceptions about Christmas beliefs/traditions:

  • The song ‘Over The River And Through The Wood’ is NOT a Christmas song. The original title of the 1844 poem by Lydia Maria Child is “The New-England Boy’s Song about Thanksgiving Day” and the lyrics say, “Hurrah for Thanksgiving Day!” NOT Christmas Day.
  • Neither is the song ‘Sleight Ride’ (“Just hear those sleigh bells jingling, ring ting tingling…”). It’s NOT a Christmas song. It’s merely a holiday song, celebrating the winter season, despite folks like The Carpenters and Sesame Street trying to change the lyrics from “a birthday party at the home of Farmer Gray” to a Christmas party.

  • Rudolph, Dasher, Donner, Blitzen et al were NOT male reindeer (sorry boys!). After mating season in autumn, when the males no longer need their antlers to fight, they shed them. Only female reindeer still have antlers at Christmastime. And did you know of the 40 various species of deer on Earth, only the reindeer species feature females with antlers?
    BTW, I could find no scientific proof that reindeer can’t fly!

  • Shepherds were NOT out at night watching their flocks ‘on a cold winter night’ as there was no need. Shepherds only watched and protected the ewes and lambs when they were most vulnerable during the February to March lambing season. 

  • Santa’s original mode of transportation was NOT a sleigh. During Colonial times in America, St. Nick rode a white horse while giving children gifts. Santa’s sleigh and reindeer didn’t appear until in an 1821 lithographed children’s book, “Children’s Friend.”
  • It’s said that at midnight on Christmas Eve all animals can talk…. I believe our animals don’t have to wait until a special day and hour – they can and do communicate quite well all the time…. it’s people who choose not to hear them.
    Before another year slips by we should start truly listening.

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]]> https://cityhorsewoman.com/christmas-myths-2022/feed/ 0 Myth or Reality? https://cityhorsewoman.com/myth-or-reality/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=myth-or-reality Fri, 28 Oct 2022 13:04:02 +0000 https://cityhorsewoman.com/?p=2799   It was on October 28    two hundred forty-six years ago today…. A Hessian soldier, fighting during the Battle of White Planes, was decapitated when a cannonball shattered his head. No surprise that the remains of his head could not be retrieved when his comrades came to carry his body off the battlefield. The Hessian […]

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  It was on October 28

   two hundred forty-six years ago today….

A Hessian soldier, fighting during the Battle of White Planes, was decapitated when a cannonball shattered his head. No surprise that the remains of his head could not be retrieved when his comrades came to carry his body off the battlefield. The Hessian (sans head) was later    buried at the Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow, NY.*

Apparently, the loss of his head, causing his premature death did not sit well with the Hessian, and he cannot rest. It’s said he rises from his grave every Halloween night and, clad head-to-toe in black, rides upon a black steed to avenge his death and search for his head. If he can’t find his it’s said he’ll take yours. No wonder the Headless Horseman became synonymous with Halloween horror.

Most American audiences may have been introduced to our hero through Washington Irving’s (a New York native whose house in Terrytown is about 4 miles from the Sleep Hallow Cemetery) 1820 story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Although Irving’s tale IS set in New York state his legend tells a slightly different tale.

   And, kill-joys that they are, the people at Wikipedia tell us “The Headless Horseman is a mythical figure who has appeared in folklore around the world since the Middle Ages.” Many variations on the
theme exist around the world, especially Ireland (‘Dulachán’), Scotland (‘Ewen of the Little Head’), and Germany (‘Wild Huntsman’).

   If you prefer the more cerebral, Franz Potter, a Gothic studies professor at National University, says that the headless horseman, as a supernatural entity, represents a past that never dies, but always haunts the living. (Read more at https://www.grunge.com/215250/the-legend-of-the-headless-horseman-explained/?utm_campaign=clip)

No wonder this rider, synonymous with Halloween horror, has been a popular guy over the years
having been commemorated not only in books but comics, film, television, video games, bars and taverns, Halloween attractions of course, and even postage stamps.

   If you want to pay the Headless Horseman a visit before he comes for your head, local lore tells us that
he’s buried inSleepy Hollow Cemetery, 430 North Broadway,
Sleepy Hollow, NY 10591 if you leave now
you might even catch him before he rides again!

   Have you had real Halloween scare click? ‘Myth or Reality’ and tell us.
*https://www.wgpfoundation.org/historic-markers/headless-horseman/   
      

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