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Day 5 - August 22, 2019 - Akureyri, Iceland
Jack with Grýla and Leppalúði (parents of the Yule Lads)
From guidetoiceland.is
Grýla is a very bad and grim ogre, and she eats badly behaved children, she comes to pick them up, puts them in her sack and then cooks them in her cauldron.
Iceland has 13 Yule Lads, which are quite different from Santa Claus
Thirteen days before Christmas the first Yule Lad comes to inhabited areas and then a new one arrives every day until the last one arrives on the 24th of December. Icelanders celebrate Christmas on the evening of the 24th of December.
It has been a tradition here in Iceland since 1950 for young kids to leave their best (or biggest) shoe on the windowsill in their bedroom, the first one 13 days before Christmas. The Yule Lad coming to "town" visits all the kids and leaves a small present for them in their shoe. But only if the kids have gone to sleep early and have not behaved badly.
Because, as one knows, the Yule Lads cannot leave you a present if you are awake. A kid who hasn't behaved well on that particular day will find a raw potato in the shoe!
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