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Friday Cat Blogging

This is my last post in the Friday Cat Blogging category. The category page is getting much too long, and since it is graphics- intensive, it takes forever to load. 

But never fear -- this post also inaugurates the Friday Cat Blogging 2 category. From now on, I will try to do this every six months or so.

ADDENDUM January 9, 02005:  At the request of dial-up cat-blogging fans, I am breaking this category down still further, so there is now:

Friday Cat Blogging
Friday Cat Blogging 2
Friday Cat Blogging 3

I will go back in and reshuffle posts over the next few days; bear with me.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Stocking Stuffers

Xmas Cards - Kiffy Hello
Originally uploaded by NMCIL ortiz domney

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Holiday Critters

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Lucy & Henry

Boo & Spike

                        

Jólakötturinn - Yule Cat

Jólakötturinn

Oh, the pleasures of the holidays! Above you see a depiction of the Icelandic Yule Cat:

The oldest written sources on the Yule Cat are from the Nineteenth Century. These refer to the fact that those who do not get a new item of clothing for Yule are destined to become offerings for the Yule Cat. It may sound strange that the deprived ones will also become the sacrifices, but this tradition is based on the fact that every effort was made to finish all work with the Autumn wool before Yule.

The reward for those who took part in the work was a new piece of clothing. Those who were lazy received nothing. Thus the Yule Cat was used as an incentive to get people to work harder.

Icelandic poet Jóhannes úr Kötlum wrote a poem about the Yule Cat. Here is one stanza, in a translation by Vignir Jónsson:

His whiskers, sharp as bristles,
His back arched up high.
And the claws of his hairy paws
Were a terrible sight.

A few more images of Jólakötturinn, linked to the site from which they came:

Here is Boo, pretending to be the Yule Cat (click to make big.) Really, she just doesn't have it in her.  Remember to visit this week's Carnival of the Cats, Carnival of the Dogs, and Friday Ark.