Reindeer go crazy for fly agaric mushroom
(Amanita muscaria),
which the Lapp
people traditionally used for its hallucinogenic effects.
Lapp shamans used
to eat the mushroom during the midwinter pagan ceremonies of Annual Renewal. The
first effect of eating it was a deep coma-like slumber. When the shamans woke
the drug stimulated their muscular systems, so that a small effort produced
spectacular results - the intoxicated person perhaps making a gigantic leap to
clear the smallest obstacle.
 |
| under the birch tree Redan June 2021 |
The effect on animals was generally the same, and a mushroom-maddened super-reindeer traditionally guarded each shaman.
When missionaries first reached Santa's native Lapland, they found a thriving pagan myth of reindeer flight. Rather than oppose it, they shrewdly assimilated the stories into the folklore of Christmas and Saint Nicholas. This then, is the true origin of the legend of Santa's flying sleigh. The colour scheme of his outfit is taken from the unmistakable red and white cap of the fungus.
Lapps still scatter the mushroom in the snow to round up reindeer.
Incidentally, the urine of people who eat the mushroom contains substantial quantities of the isoxazole derivatives that produce the intoxicating effect.
Impoverished Lapps knew this, and collected round the huts of rich Lapps who indulged in the mushroom at Christmas parties. When their overlords came out to relieve themselves in the snow, the serfs collected the urine to drink.
When they, in turn, urinated in the snow, the reindeer fought to utilise what remained of the mushroom's intoxicating effects.
When missionaries first reached Santa's native Lapland, they found a thriving pagan myth of reindeer flight. Rather than oppose it, they shrewdly assimilated the stories into the folklore of Christmas and Saint Nicholas. This then, is the true origin of the legend of Santa's flying sleigh. The colour scheme of his outfit is taken from the unmistakable red and white cap of the fungus.
Lapps still scatter the mushroom in the snow to round up reindeer.
Incidentally, the urine of people who eat the mushroom contains substantial quantities of the isoxazole derivatives that produce the intoxicating effect.
Impoverished Lapps knew this, and collected round the huts of rich Lapps who indulged in the mushroom at Christmas parties. When their overlords came out to relieve themselves in the snow, the serfs collected the urine to drink.
 |
| emerald moss Bell-street Redan June 2021 |
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