Victorian Christmas cards that will make you doubt the good intentions of the sender

If it seems to you that the New Year holidays are being celebrated somehow incorrectly, then you definitely have not seen these Christmas cards from Victorian era. They are no less creepy than the time when they were printed. In this collection of postcards of the late XIX century — ominous wishes, bloodthirsty congratulations and the terrible fun of Christmas. Tremble, Santa Claus has already left!

Until the beginning of the XIX century, Christmas in England was not a particularly popular holiday. At the same time, a corresponding iconography appeared with gifts, snow, St. Nicholas... Along with Christian motifs, there were also more ancient — pagan ones. But the essence of some postcards has been lost for centuries and has not reached our days, most likely, these are allusions to unsaved poems or stories.

One of the most popular images on Victorian Christmas cards is dead birds. Just a robin or a wren is lying with its paws up — and the signature: "Merry Christmas to you!"

One explanation is that once killing a wren at the end of December was considered a good omen: it symbolized the Old Year and symbolically died with it. The Irish hung the dead bird from a pole. This ritual has ancient Celtic roots: the wren was aptly killed by one of the heroes of Celtic mythology, Lleu Llau Gifes. And on the Isle of Man, for example, it was believed that the wren is an evil fairy in the guise of a bird; in the guise of a woman, she is engaged in seducing men, taking them out of the house, and then insidiously drowns.

But this is not the only explanation. There is another, more popular: that dead birds were supposed to awaken pity and sympathy. And not to themselves, but to poor children, starving and freezing in Christmas. In British folklore, there is a story about "babies in the woods" — a brother and sister whose parents died and an evil uncle became their guardian; he gave them to robbers to kill them, but in the end the children just got lost in the thicket, died quietly by themselves, and robins buried them, throwing leaves. It was about this heartwarming story that the postcards reminded.

In the well—known phrase Merry Christmas — "Merry Christmas" - the key word is "merry". And Christmas in Britain was not considered a very religious holiday. That is, everyone understood what exactly they were celebrating, but they believed that on this day they should first of all laugh and rejoice. And the ideas of a funny joke among the British of the Victorian era were specific.

For example, one postcard depicts two frogs: one has just stabbed the other and is running away from a corpse with a bag of money.

On the other, plucked turkeys roast the unfortunate man to the cheerful cries of "Merry Christmas and New Year" and the approving smile of a strange round creature.

The third one shows a melting humanoid snowman.

On the fourth — an unhappy child stuck in a festive cake. Well, it's fun, isn't it?..

Here are some more wild Christmas cards of the XIX century. Admire and tremble…