We end with THE East Slavic Christmas figure ! Russians call him Ded Moroz ("grandfather frost"), but almost every country has its own name for him. Mythological figure of diverse tales and legends and an amalgamate of several Winter gods from Slavic mythology, Ded Moroz is a positive character only since recently. Before, he was feared, causing blizzards, killing anyone coming across him freezing them and kidnapping children in his sack. But the Orthodox Church influence made him benevolent around the 19th century. And as said yesterday, when USSR limited the influence from religion and Christmas lost its glory, they reprised from traditional folklore Ded Moroz and Snegurochka, they made them a grandfather and a granddaughter, and they made them gifts deliverers to children. However I had not been precise yesterday, but I mean it is not on Christmas that they come since precisely the Soviet regime wanted to stifle it, but the New Year, the new version of Ded Moroz being a mix of our very own Santa Claus and January Man. He has been depicted since the last century as a an old man with a long white beard, getting around in a troika pulled by horses, holding a magic cane/stick and wearing high boots, a long trailing coat and a round fur headdress, with a color palette composed of blue, white and silver but sometimes red as well
Merry Christmas to all ! Thank you for having followed this series and see you next year for another dozen of folkloric Christmas figures

Ded Moroz © Slavic mythology, legends, tales and folklore
Drawing © me