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The Straw Man

February 2, 2019

In the ancient pagan traditions of Europe, the young people of the village would meet in the town square in the morning of the first saturday in February, to build the Straw Man.  this was done by twisting thick strands of straw or other vegetation around wooden poles in the form of a ‘stick man’.  In the afternoon, adults would bring the Straw Man to a place just outside the village where it is erected.  In the evening, the area around the Straw Man was illuminated by torches made of bundled rags drenched in flammable oil.

When the clock struck eight, these were thrown at the Straw Man, setting him ablaze.  The villagers celebrated and sang the Straw Man song, written by a native post, while the Straw Man burned.  When the Straw Man was consumed, everyone walked back to the village.

Traditions hold that such an effigy was deemed by our ancestors to embody all the bad thoughts, deeds, and luck of the village from the previous year, and that these were consumed in the flames.  Hence the philosophical concept of a “Straw Man”, an imaginary adversary to be easily confuted. The Straw Man tradition is kept alive in Switzerland today, where a large “Hom Strom” about 8 meters tall and 2 meters thick is constructed each year out of rye stalks and burned in scuol.

www.myswitzerland.com/en-us/hom-strom-in-scuol-gr.html

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Date:
February 2, 2019