The Yule Cat

I have a very festive surname - Yule - which is more than a little ironic as I have a somewhat 'bah, humbug' attitude to Christmas.  I knew that Yule comes from the ancient Norse mid-winter festival and that Jul or Jola are Scandinavian names for Christmas but what I had never heard of until recently was the Yule Cat.  I came across details of this Icelandic Christmas creature on the very interesting blog The Iceland Weather Report (which, contrary to its name, doesn't just focus on Icelandic weather - although that is always mentioned - but is an incredibly interesting and incredibly well-written account of life in Iceland in general.)  

Anyway, in Iceland the Yule Cat will eat up anyone who doesn't have new clothing for Christmas - which is an interesting idea but thankfully not a tradition that we have in our family at all.  We always go for really comfy clothing - elasticated waistbands preferably - for Christmas day, so that we can enjoy our Christmas lunch to the full.

I leave you with a photo of our very own Yule Cat - Lily (and, yes, she can be a frightening beast at times too) - and hope everyone has a lovely Christmas, new clothes or not.

 

Comments

[Jeff]

Merry Christmas from Cat-toure. We know that the cat clothing market is lacking, so me and my fiance decided to do something about it. We thought why do dogs get to have all the fun? With that being said, February 1st, 2010 we will be launching our cat clothing line cat-toure. If you would like to be on our mailing list to keep updated with the company, please leave an email at [email protected] or join our fan page on facebook. We are really excited about this.

-Jeff
www.cat-toure.com

[Wendy]

Just popped in to wish you and P a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Hope you have both recovered and are ready for the 'elasticated waist' time!
Wendy, Tom & Dougal-dog

[Ilona]

What a beautiful cat, she looks so sweet. I hope you have a lovely Christmas, best wishes from Ilona, Bugsy, Freddie, and Lilly.