Instead of one Santa, the kids are visited by 13 Yule Lads that either reward children for good behavior or punish them if they were naughty. The holiday period begins 13 days before Christmas and each day one of the 13 Yule Lads comes to houses and fills the shoes that kids leave under the Christmas tree either with sweets and small gifts or rotting potatoes, depending on how that particular child has behaved on the preceding day. The mother of Yule Lads, half-troll, half-beast, horrifying old woman Grýla, kidnaps naughty kids and boils them in her cauldron.
The Winter Solstice in Northern Hemisphere will be at 5:02 AM (EST), the shortest day of the year and the longest night.
It is therefore a good time to do things you wouldn't want the sun to hear about. The Pagans, for example, wisely celebrate their Yule holiday on the Winter Solstice.
Ancient peoples believed that because daylight was waning, it might go away forever, so they lit huge bonfires to tempt the sun to come back. The tradition of decorating our houses and our trees with lights at this time of year is passed down from those ancient bonfires.
In Ancient Rome, the winter solstice was celebrated with the festival of Saturnalia,
during which all business transactions and even war were suspended, and slaves were waited upon by their masters.
It's only two days away - please begin writing
Acme would like to, once again, bring you this new Christmas classic, Dear Satan, from the folks at Anomaly London. It's popularity may have something to do with the fact that Sir Patrick Stewart narrated their video.
So kids, remember, two typos and literally Bob's yer uncle.
December 21, 1914 -
The first feature-length silent film comedy, Tillie's Punctured Romance, starring Marie Dressler, Charlie Chaplin and Mabel Normand, was released on this date.
This film marked the last time that Charles Chaplin would be directed by someone other than himself.
December 21, 1932 -
The movie musical Flying Down to Rio premiered on this date.
In the "Flying Down to Rio" musical number, many of the girls on the airplane wings are wearing see-through tops. The Hays code, introduced in 1930, was not enforced until 1934.
December 21, 1937 -
The first feature-length color and sound cartoon, Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered on this date.
At a recording session, Lucille La Verne, the voice of the Wicked Queen, was told by Walt Disney's animators that they needed an older, raspier version of the Queen's voice for the Old Witch. La Verne stepped out of the recording booth, returned a few minutes later, and gave a perfect "Old Hag's voice" that stunned the animators. When asked how she did it, she replied, "Oh, I just took my teeth out."
December 21, 1940 -
Another classic Porky Pig cartoon, The Timid Toreador, premiered on this date.
Bob Clampett was briefly sick during this time period, leaving two Porky Pig cartoons (The Timid Toreador and Porky's Snooze Reel) unfinished, Leon Schlesinger told Norman McCabe to complete the directorial duties—hence the co-director credit under their main titles.
December 21, 1959 -
The Orpheus legend set in Rio de Janeiro (with the fabulous music by Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim,) Black Orpheus, premiered in the US on this date.
Breno Mello was a soccer player with no acting experience at the time he was cast as Orfeu. Mello was walking on the street in Rio de Janeiro, when Marcel Camus stopped him and asked if he would like to be in a film.
December 21, 1963 -
The Doctor Who story arc The Daleks, the second story of Season One, first aired on the BBC on this date.
The episodes mark the first appearance of the Doctor’s mortal enemies, the Daleks, a race of genetically engineered mutants who abhor all other races.
December 21, 1969 -
Diana Ross and the Supremes make their final television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, on this date.
This was originally recorded by the duo Johnny & Jackey (Johnny Bristol and Jackey Beavers) in 1961. Their version went nowhere, and the duo were defunct a short time later. The song was revived in 1969 when Motown Records brought in Bristol to produce a new version for Jr. Walker & the All-Stars as a follow-up to their hit What Does It Take (To Win Your Love). Bristol recorded the track with Motown's famed Funk Brothers house band and added backing vocals using singers at the label, along with the sisters Maxine and Julia Waters. But Walker never got to record it. The Supremes were about to break up, and Motown needed a big hit to launch Diana Ross' solo career. Increasingly desperate, label head Berry Gordy decided to give Someday We'll Be Together to Ross instead of Walker. She added her lead vocal to the track, but Gordy decided it was better suited as the final Supremes single with Ross instead of her debut. The Supremes needed a big finale to close out their Diana Ross era, move forward as a group, and send off Ross as a solo artist, and that's exactly what the song did, even though Ross was the only group member to appear on it.
Even felons put out a good album now and then
Today in History -
The pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock on December 21, 1620 or some other day, the pilgrims were too busy depriving themselves of luxuries like accurate calendars (Their stepping ashore onto a large rock that later became known as the Plymouth Rock probably is a myth.) Their boat was the Mayflower.
The crew of the ship did not have enough beer to get to Virginia and back to England so they dropped the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock to preserve their beer stock.
December 21, 1879 -
Josif Djugashvili was born in the Gori District of Tiflis Province in Georgia, Imperial Russia, on this date.
(or December 18th or the 22nd. When you're an evil bastard dictator, you get to choose your own birthday).
December 21, 1898 -
Radium, which existed since the world was young, was minding it own business when French local busybodies and known chemists Pierre and Marie Curie isolated radium; one of the first radioactive elements to be discovered. They won a joint Nobel prize for their work, and Marie Curie went on to win another for her contributions to chemistry.
Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia as a result of overexposure to radium, which probably showed her not to play with radioactive elements.
December 21, 1940 -
F. Scott Fitzgerald, died of a heart attack at Sheilah Graham's apartment on this date. He was 44 and believed he had died a failure.
And yet, into the 21st century, millions of copies of his works have continued to be sold.
December 21, 1945 -
World War II General George Patton died in a car accident in Heidelberg, Germany on this date.
Patton was investigating the theft of Nazi gold by US Army men at the time. My grandfather was convinced that it was a conspiracy and he was killed by the men he was investigating.
My grandfather was a small time numbers runner but that's another story ...
December 21, 1968 -
Apollo 8 was the second manned mission of the Apollo space program, in which Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to leave Earth orbit and to orbit around the Moon.
The spacecraft entered into orbit around the moon on December 24th. They were the first men to ever view the Earth in its entirety, with them taking photos of our planet whilst on board the spacecraft and sending them back to television stations back home. They landed back on Earth on December 27th.
A year later Apollo 11 would be the first manned spacecraft to land on the Moon.
December 21, 1970 -
Paranoid, alcoholic President Richard Nixon met with prescription drug addict Elvis Presley at the White House to discuss The King's becoming a special drug enforcement agent
He presented Nixon with a pistol, and received a special DEA badge in return.
December 21, 2012 -
We're still here!
The Mayan "long count" calendar is based on great cycles of 5125 years; apparently, the world has not ended. But the calendar may just have been off by 8 years.
And so it goes
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