this post was submitted on 25 Dec 2025
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[–] gjoel@programming.dev 11 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Denmark - Julemanden. The yule man.

[–] cabbage@piefed.social 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Julenissen in Norway, so the yule gnome more or less. Not to be confused with låvenissen, who lives all year in the granary of the farm and is given porridge for Christmas. Some people, especially those living on farms, are visited by låvenissen instead of julenissen on the 24th.

Låvenissen is a trickster, and when things are missing around the farm it's probably his fault. But unlike the people living under ground (de underjordiske) he's not a scary fellow, and he deserves a little treat for Christmas like everyone else.

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I get that it's completely unrelated etymogically, but I like how close manden is to mandem. It's the Yule mandem. Santa is, in fact, about a dozen London lads

[–] AstaKask@lemmy.cafe 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's actually completely related etymologically. Mandem = Man + Dem (Them). Manden = Man + Den (The). Both use the same Germanic words from two very similar Germanic languages. Mandem would just be plural Manden.

[–] Skua@kbin.earth 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] Rugnjr@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I'm learning danish as a native English speaker and damn near every danish word is related to a bunch of English words etymologically, even more than when I was learning french.