Why Santa’s Reindeer Fly

Michelle Jones journeys to Finland to discover the possible roots of Santa and his flying reindeer

Michelle writes the Angel Column in Chat-It’s Fate magazine and is a regular contributor to many MBS magazines; you can find out more about her at her website www.michellejones.me.uk or look for her on Facebook!

If you ask someone what they know about Finland or Lapland, they will probably talk about trips to see Father Christmas, the midnight sun, or even shiver and shudder whilst muttering darkly that they could not possibly live in such a cold, snowy, unforgiving climate...

The truth is that Finland is a beautiful country, with hotter, more reliable summers than those we ‘enjoy’ here in the UK and so much more to offer than a two day trip to Lapland to sit on Santa’s knee!

The Finns have an ancient shamanic tradition, a rich mythology wound around an epic ‘Saga’ story and a fabulous jewel that mirrors the ice and fire of the northern lights...

The original people came out of Asia many thousands of years ago, and originally occupied a far larger area-it has been suggested by some of the most highly respected academics and archaeologists that some of them settled in England and Ireland, long before the Vikings appeared on the scene!
There are some intriguing parallels between the Irish and Finnish myths and legends. They brought with them oral traditions of poetry and storytelling, and also their shamanic beliefs, which included ‘Animism’. This is a belief that spirits reside in all things, from people and animals, to rocks and trees; this type of belief is of course not limited to Northern Europe but appears around the globe, notably amongst the Australian Aborigines, the Native Americans and other tribal communities. The ancient Finns were a nomadic people, who followed the reindeer herds that gave them food to eat and skins to keep out the cold.

Respected and feared magicians...
The Finns were respected and even feared by other nations; they had a reputation for strong magic, and were thought to be sorcerers by some-in particular it was believed that they could control the wind.

There are accounts as late as the nineteenth century which tell how Finnish sailors were able to sail a ship into the teeth of a gale force wind, and not be beaten back, and how Finnish wizards would ‘Sell the wind’ to sailors to help them on their way.
This ‘Wind’ consisted of a string tied into three knots which would be handed over to the buyer. If he undid the first knot, then a moderate wind would fill his sails, untie the second and a strong gale would speed him on his way...but he untied the third at his peril as it would unleash a hurricane!

The shamanic traditions of the Finns hold many parallels with other northern peoples, including the Inuit (Eskimo), Lapps and Samoyed. They believed in using an altered state of consciousness in order to communicate with the gods and the spirit world, to cast spells and to increase their power. This trance state would be achieved in different ways, using chanting, songs, and drumming; or by spending time in the sweat lodge or sauna.

There is also a rather strange tradition that could well account for our belief that Santa has flying reindeer!

Santa’s Reindeer
The shamans would use a powerful drug to induce the trance state in order for them to communicate with the spirits...hallucinogenic mushrooms.
The distinctive red and white spotted mushroom known as ‘Fly Agaric’ (Amanita Muscaria) was used, partly because of its relationship with the birch tree, which the Finns held sacred. It is interesting that traditionally, this is the same type of mushroom most often shown in art depicting the fairy folk as well, from Arthur Rackham’s stunning paintings to the garden gnome sat on a toadstool!

I must strongly warn you at this point NOT to try this for yourselves!

The ‘Fly Agaric’ mushroom is highly toxic and lethal to humans, but not to the hardy reindeer...
So the mushrooms would be fed to the reindeer and then the shaman would drink the urine of the reindeer, in order to achieve the trance state he required. Quite literally, he would ‘Get Pissed’. It is widely thought that this is in fact the root of the modern phrase, which of course means to be intoxicated.
I cannot help but wonder who first decided to try this...!

The shaman would be dressed in reindeer furs, with antlers tied to his head; he would then be able to fly to the worlds of spirit and the ancestors...literally a flying reindeer.

There are other connections to our Christmas customs too; our vision of the man in red and white, with a lust for life, who has a sleigh pulled by reindeer and who has a workshop in the north, is an exact match for ‘Steady old Vainomoinen’ , one of the central characters in the Finnish Epic, The Kalevala.  Incidentally, it is a myth that Coca Cola ‘invented’ the red and white image of Santa; it was depicted on Victorian cards long before Coca Cola thought of it!

The Kalevala is a tale of two lands, Kaleva and Pohjola. They both want possession of the Sampo and the tale details its construction, its theft, and then loss in battle. There is still debate and disagreement on what the Sampo actually is, but it is made clear in the tale that it gives the owner(s) happiness and prosperity, so it is certainly an item worth fighting for! Back to the story...this centres around three main characters; Vainomoinen, the first man and a powerful shaman; Ilmarinen, a Sky and Weather God and Divine Smith, who forges the mysterious Sampo; and Lemminkainen, an adventurous type with a roving eye. There are battles and weddings, an evil queen and even a virgin birth caused by eating a cowberry! There are so many parallels with stories that we are familiar with, from the midwinter virgin birth, to King Arthur sailing away with his promise to rise again, to Wayland, our own ‘Divine Smith’.

The story ends with a promise for the future; as Vainomoinen sails away the Kalevala tells us he:

“Went upon his journey singing,
Sailing in his boat of copper,
In his vessel made of copper,
Sailed away to loftier regions,
To the sky beneath the heavens,
There he rested with his vessel,
But his kantele he left us,
Left his charming harp in Suomi,
For his people’s lasting pleasure,
Mighty songs for Finnish children.”

Trances in the Sauna
The sauna is much more than just a way of getting clean to the Finns. There is a strong spiritual element to the tradition of sauna as well. The shaman might use it to help him reach his trance state, the doctor might use it for primitive surgery and bloodletting and the mother would give birth in the safe, warm and sterile environment of the sauna. A stone representation of Tontu, the spirit of the sauna, is painted with tar (Terva) from the birch trees. The tradition of hitting oneself with a ‘whisk’; a tied bunch of green birch twigs, allows the blood vessels to expand and aids toxins to be released from the body in sweat. Throwing small amounts of water onto the coals is known as Loyly and was originally a form of worshipping Ukko Ylijmala, the creator of humanity. Ukko was responsible for the soul, his wife Akka, for the body. There is a large pantheon of Finnish gods and goddesses, the greatest being Jumala, whose sacred symbol is the oak. Others include Paiva, The Sun; Kuu, The Moon; Tapio and Mielikki, the lord and lady of the forests; plus many others.

Stunning Spectrolite Crystals
Spectrolite is an incredibly beautiful version of Labradorite. It is the national jewel, found ONLY in Finland, although some types of Labradorite and Moonstone (notably from Madagascar) are sometimes sold as Spectrolite. You cannot mistake the real thing however; the colours are exceptionally deep and rich whenever it catches the light, and it glows with the hues of the Northern lights; blue, violet and indigo, through to red, orange, yellow and green. If you want to buy Spectrolite, ask where it comes from. If it is not from Finland, it is not Spectrolite.

My View...
I ‘discovered’ Finland in 2001; my husband had been working there and had made lots of friends, so we went over for a holiday. To be honest, I was not expecting to like it very much, like many I thought it would be cold, flat, boring and uninteresting...but I could not have been more wrong. Finland is an incredibly beautiful country; its defining features are the lakes, the islands and the millions upon millions of birch trees. There are 187, 888 lakes (larger than 500 square metres, who knows how many if you count the smaller ones!), 179,584 islands and hundreds of square miles of trees. About 75% of the country is covered with trees and there is a strong tradition of ‘Sacred Groves’ where no wood may be cut. Added to this is the fact that the entire population of Finland is around 5,000,000-less than the number that live inside the ring of the M25!

I was surprised by the deeply spiritual nature of the country too, whether in winter or summer (Fantastic shopping too!). We have been in Helsinki when the temperature was -24 Celsius (at night) and you could not even breathe without a scarf over your nose and mouth (and my husband’s glasses froze over every time we stepped outside!), and at midsummer when it never really gets dark. We had an hour of sheer wonderment a couple of years ago at midsummer; we were in the most fabulous bar on the planet-the Ateljee, on the 12th floor of the Hotelli Torni in Helsinki (my favourite hotel!), which has glass walls, giving an incredible panoramic view of the city. It was around midnight, and we were stood on one of the balconies, gazing out towards the west... the sun had gone down, and the sky was an artist’s canvas of reds, oranges and purples...but there was still a thin crescent of sun showing above the horizon, and as we watched, it moved along from left to right, until it began to rise once more... It is an experience I shall treasure forever and one of my ’50 things to do before you die’!

One of my others is visiting the ‘Church in the Rock’ (Temppeliaukion kirkko) in Helsinki. This non-denominational place of worship was blasted from one solid granite outcrop; it is circular, with a domed roof that looks exactly like a space craft embedded within the rock from above! Inside, the granite has been left bare and unworked, the drilled channels for the explosives still visible. The roof is constructed from a massive spiral of copper plates!

The first time we visited it, was back in 2001; we had gone to the Lutheran Cathedral first, a large and imposing white building in a huge square-but it was soulless inside, nothing to life the spirit; the Temppeliaukion kirkko, is almost hidden, up a side street, with a modest and discreet entrance.
But oh my god, what a feeling when you walk inside! It almost brought me to me knees; I was completely overwhelmed with the sheer energy of the place. I found I had tears rolling down my cheeks; I did not want to leave...ever! If you get the chance, go there, and leave all your defences down.

We return to Finland as often as time and money allow, every time we leave I leave a piece of my heart on its shores. I shall leave you with this thought- as the Finns say:
“Jos ei viina, Terva ja sauna auta, niin tauti on kuolemaksi!”

“If the wine, the sauna and the tar cannot cure you, you are already dead!