King Frost Day - Curiosity

King Frost Day was celebrated in England, to be more accurate, in London at the 4th of February. The people of London along the River Thames used to celebrate this event between the 15th century to the early years of the 19th century. The temperatures were lower than they are now and the river was much wider, so during this period the river was completely frozen for two months, people would easily walk from one side of the river to the other. This was a day of fun and merriment, all kinds of games where made on top of the frozen River Thames, sliding with skeetes, races with horses or on foot, singing, making all kinds of snow sculptures, people would even cook and mount fairs in the place, well.. you can imagine all kinds of funny things you can make on top of frozen water. People called this day, King frost day in honor to the shadowy sovereign of winter, and this has a much older tradition associated with the trickster spirit of winter who can be a friendly and a fierce enemy at the same time, symbolizing both the beauty of winter and its harsh deadly coldness, a figure often called Jack Forst, a very familiar character portrayed as friendly, but he can also be wrathful when he dislikes something, he can even kill. This figure has its roots in the deep Anglo-Saxon traditions and also the Viking Traditions, telling us about a god called Jokul Frosti or Icicle Frost, commonly known as Old Man Winter in European Paganism, the historical ancesor of Father Christmas or Santa Claus.

Just a tiny curiosity for this day, something most people forgot in time. Another evidencia which shows us that most of our festivities which became so common in our lifes, came from much older pagan traditions.