Then the boy gathered all the money he could get, and left by night. So ends the story of the crafty boy and the stupid giant.
CHAPTER XIV
JUL, OR CHRISTMAS
Jul is the great festival in Sweden. The festivities begin on Christmas Eve—Julafton—and continue for thirteen days. Since early autumn everyone has been sewing and embroidering beautiful presents. Amongst young girls there is a custom that for one night before Jul they should sit up the whole night and sew. This is looked forward to as a special pleasure, and two or three friends are invited to join the party.
A few days before Christmas the streets begin to be crowded, and young and old throng the shops.
In the market-place you find stalls containing all sorts of things—toys, clothing, and confectionery. Amongst the latter are special ginger-cakes, shaped like different animals, especially pigs, to commemorate the old boar that was sacrificed in heathen times. These stalls are greatly patronized by the country people.
Rich and poor, during Jul, are anxious to be kind and liberal to their family and friends, remembering each member with some token of their thought and love. Even the animal world is not forgotten. Horses and cows get a special feed in their stalls, and on every house in the country, as well as many in the towns, you will see a pole erected, to which is fixed a sheaf of unthreshed grain as a treat for small birds that, in this hard season, have great difficulty in getting food. There is a saying in Sweden that on the anniversary of the coming of our Lord into the world all creatures should have cause to rejoice.
Within doors great preparations are being made. Servants are busy cleaning and scrubbing everything that can be scrubbed. In the kitchen a great amount of cooking is taking place, and six or seven different kinds of bread have to be baked, as, in the country, each servant and tenant are presented with a pile of special Jul-bread.
Jul at the present day, as in olden times, is a great festival with the Swedish peasantry. They have a special reverence for this season. No work that can be avoided will be done on this day.