European Winter Traditions - Winter Theme

Revel in some of Europe's weird and wonderful winter traditions! To continue our Winter Theme this month, Quizmaster Sups invites you to join him for four celebrations across Europe. But watch out, one of the traditions is not real! So button up and join hosts Andi and Tanner as they try to find the fake! 

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Transcript

Andi 0:01

you just get a group of men together and watch them do dumb stuff.

Tanner 0:04

Yeah. Maybe there's not that much to do on the last Sunday in February.

Andi 0:09

Remember when we all gossiped about you back in March? Yeah. We remember I sewed it into my

Tanner 0:14

shirt

Andi 0:16

And then of course you burn all of it. Yeah.

Tanner 0:18

That

Andi 0:18

makes sense.

Sups 0:19

totally.

Tanner 0:20

We're done Move on. Burn it all. Where would that come from? Maybe it was inspired by something maybe. Yeah. I don't know. That's an awfully weird thing to include.

Andi 0:30

hello, and welcome to this episode of the I Should Have Known podcast, the trivia podcast that can't be trusted. Each week our Quizmaster presents you with four big facts on a topic. One of those facts is a lie. We are doing a winter theme for December, since it's winter, here in Kara of Poland, and our quizmaster today is soups.

Sups 0:49

Hello,

Andi 0:50

and he's going to be doing a find the fake episode on Winter Traditions in Europe. So he will present us with four traditions practiced in Europe in the wintertime, but one of these traditions he has made up. So join me, Andy, and our other host Tanner in trying to figure out which one it is

Sups 1:08

Yeah, so we are gonna be talking about traditions in different cities in Europe. So these are not necessarily countrywise tradition, they're very specific to that city or region. Right. Okay. But before we get started, low hanging fruit of the week when is the last day of the advent season?

Tanner 1:27

uh, Crap. it's Christmas. Yeah. Christmas. Yeah.

Sups 1:31

to be specific. Christmas Eve

Tanner 1:33

Yeah. 20.

Andi 1:34

the 24th.

Sups 1:35

Yeah. So always the starting date changes every year. Like this year is the 28th of November. But it always ends on the 24th.

Tanner 1:44

Hmm.

Andi 1:45

Okay.

Sups 1:45

But we are not gonna talk about Christmas in this episode. We are gonna. Other winter traditions. All right. Let's start with tradition number one, okay? it's called ELs nuts, and this is celebrated in ante, Spain.

Andi 2:01

Okay.

Sups 2:01

else, and far nuts is a valencian word, which roughly translates to the flowered ones. Flowered as in like what you use for baking and not like rose or,

Tanner 2:13

okay. okay.

Andi 2:14

yes.

Sups 2:14

Yeah. It's actually a 200 year old festival, which happens every year on the 28th of December which is in this region, known as the Day of the Innocence, which is the Spanish equivalent of April Full stay.

Tanner 2:30

Ah,

Andi 2:30

Oh, okay.

Tanner 2:32

Ient? Yes. Yes. Okay. Yeah.

Sups 2:34

And so this tradition, what it is, is actually a game. Played by married men. One group is the government one is like the opposition. And the whole day they go around town basically throwing eggs, flour. Firecrackers against each other. Wow. Okay. In terms of trying to win it, like win the tournament

Andi 2:57

how are points scored And

Tanner 3:00

is it like dodge ball? Like if you get hit with an egg, you're out? Yeah.

Sups 3:02

by the evening, everyone's got like eggs and like firecrackers, but it's playful But The origin of this tradition is not very playful. It actually comes from the New Testament where King hero,

Andi 3:14

Oh yeah.

Sups 3:15

He slaughtered all the infant In order to kill baby Jesus. So the participants use this l and far ups tradition as a way to remember this

Andi 3:26

Cuz that it's called the massacre of the innocence

Sups 3:28

Right.

Andi 3:30

It's weird to me that that's like, haha, April Fools let's murder babies. Yeah. It does also make sense that it would be after Christmas cuz Jesus has been born.

Tanner 3:39

Timeline makes

Andi 3:40

Yeah, sure. Assuming that Jesus actually was born December 25th, blah, blah, blah. Right.

Sups 3:45

right. We stick with the tradition. We

Andi 3:47

That's the tradition. And so that makes sense. That that day would come after I'd never thought about it or heard about it. As a day. But it makes sense. Yeah. Throwing eggs and flour and stuff sounds like something people would do.

Tanner 3:59

sounds kinda like some other traditions around the world, like Minges in Poland you'd do it with water.

Andi 4:04

And I, it kind of fits with being around Christmas. You would have a lot of food and stuff gathered together anyway, so like we have extra flour from all of the whatever we made for Christmas and now we can throw it at each other and it's fun. Yeah. because otherwise it's kind of wasteful to throw food.

Tanner 4:21

Yeah. Right,

Sups 4:21

Right.

Andi 4:22

so I'm not hearing anything that sounds super fake. or There's a hole or a lie. It also sounds very easy to make up.

Tanner 4:31

Yeah. Yeah.

Andi 4:32

cuz I have a hard time seeing what connection there is between the massacre of the innocence and throwing food at each

Tanner 4:39

other. Yeah. Especially flour. Like I noticed Farina was in the name and that's Spanish for

Andi 4:44

flower, right? Yeah.

Tanner 4:45

So what does that have to do with babies?

Andi 4:47

Yeah. Right. I mean, I know soups studies Spanish. and maybe he's showing off the Spanish. He learned, he's like, oh, I learned fina. I learned about innocence and I learned this tradition and so, Yeah, maybe he's showing that

Tanner 5:00

off. Mm. I have heard of ient though, as like a prank day. maybe this lines up. I have to hear the other

Andi 5:06

Yeah. I have to hear them.

Sups 5:08

Right. Tradition number two. fire bread fish. this is a tradition that is observed by the locals of the town called Bergen in the south of Belgium. It's Flemish town. Bordering. France,

Andi 5:24

Mm-hmm.

Sups 5:24

They have this whole shick about We were here even before Belgium.

Andi 5:28

It's true.

Sups 5:29

Yep. This tradition is for the last Sunday in February. the tradition cricks off the participants. dressed up as medieval nights and they trek up to the hill and the town. Once they're up in the town, they start throwing round bread. very similar to a Yeah, like a bagel. Yeah. they just start reigning it down to the town from the top of the hill,

Andi 5:54

More food

Sups 5:55

Yeah. and then they set a wooden barrel on fire and carry torches and track back down carrying torches basically signifies that it's the end of winter and the light is

Tanner 6:09

The light is coming back. Okay.

Andi 6:11

That makes sense. where's the fish?

Sups 6:13

But before, tracking down, they drink live fish from a golet of red wine.

Tanner 6:21

What?

Sups 6:22

Yes.

Andi 6:23

so they're alive.

Sups 6:24

Yes. This is an alive fish. dipped in red wine and you gotta, and it. Yeah, exactly. But now they have blocked it that every year only a maximum of 12 people can do it. And one of them is like the main priest of Wow.

Tanner 6:40

That's so

Andi 6:41

Wow.

Tanner 6:42

It sounds like a fever dream that soups had. And this is like And then I drank a goblet with a fish in it and it was wine and there was a burning torch. Oh my God. And I threw this bread at people. What? How are any of the things connected? This is so

Andi 6:57

Yeah, Yeah, it sounds so much like a frat hazing. It's like dress up, like knight throw random bread and then slurp a goldfish, right? Like it's, that's like from a movie or something.

Sups 7:08

basically, the city was being attacked. And it was surrounded And they started throwing this bread to prove that, don't worry, we have ample amount of food.

Tanner 7:17

Uh, you can't starve

Sups 7:19

Yes. Yeah, you cannot.

Andi 7:20

yeah, prestigious all you want, man. We just toss our bread

Sups 7:24

seed.

Tanner 7:24

We'll even put fish in our wine

Andi 7:26

Yeah. Right.

Tanner 7:27

It's like they just crammed all their symbolism into one tradition.

Andi 7:31

Yeah. That's very bizarre.

Tanner 7:33

I've never heard of anything like this.

Andi 7:34

No, but I mean, weird, small European towns, like it makes sense that they do weird

Tanner 7:41

Yeah.

Andi 7:41

you just get a group of men together and watch them do dumb stuff.

Tanner 7:44

Yeah. Maybe there's not that much to do on the last Sunday in February.

Andi 7:48

Yeah.

Tanner 7:49

Yeah, I'm not sure if I completely believe that,

Andi 7:52

but Yeah, It's a little too

Tanner 7:54

Yeah. But it might be just weird enough to be real, right? let's hear the third one.

Sups 7:58

one. Yeah, sure. I called this tradition, bonfire and gas station. This tradition comes from a town in western Norway called Kip. And they have a carnival. that starts on the New Year's Eve.

Andi 8:11

Okay.

Sups 8:12

at midnight. the whole year the people in this town, they're busy designing costumes. They actually represent the local happenings And so at midnight everyone joins the. And then the people in the town, they're passing like satirical commentary on the local affairs And, and it's like a big honor if somebody talks about you.

Tanner 8:35

Oh, okay,

Andi 8:36

okay. So if like you are part of someone's costume, it's like oh, you are the big story. Yeah. Remember when we all gossiped about you back in March? Yeah. We remember I sewed it into my

Tanner 8:46

shirt

Andi 8:47

Yeah.

Sups 8:47

So Yeah. So of course as a part of this carnival, there's like floats posters, you know, and this is a very beautiful city of Cobble Street, the traditional Norwegian houses. So the carnival's passing off there and all of these floats, posters and everything that is in the carnival, they all end up in a huge bonfire.

Tanner 9:07

Oh,

Andi 9:08

Okay.

Sups 9:09

And this bonfire is frighteningly close to a gas station,

Tanner 9:13

Why? Oh, okay. Couldn't They

Sups 9:15

They put it anywhere? this tradition has been on in this town in Norway since the 18, 19 hundreds.

Andi 9:22

Okay. So it's less about like, why did they put the bonfire near the gas station and more, why did they put the gas station near the bonfire?

Sups 9:30

exactly.

Andi 9:31

Bonfire's been happening way longer than gas stations have been around. Good point. That just seems like a weird, surprising fact. Yeah. Interest. It's an interesting concept. I like the kind of like a visual calendar. year review, but you wear it. Yeah. I think we should do that in other places. I, I'm into

Tanner 9:47

That's, that's

Andi 9:47

of fun. I like that And then of course you burn all of it. Yeah.

Tanner 9:50

That

Andi 9:50

makes sense.

Sups 9:51

totally.

Tanner 9:52

We're done Move on. Burn it all.

Andi 9:54

It's cleansing. It's

Tanner 9:56

year.

Sups 9:56

Exactly.

Andi 9:57

this one seems fairly realistic to me. That's awfully creative. Mm-hmm. I'd be really impress if soups made it up. Yeah. But for me, the biggest detail is the gas station cuz it's kind of like, why would soups add that? Mm-hmm. why would anyone think to add that?

Tanner 10:11

Right. Where would that come from? Maybe it was inspired by something maybe. Yeah. I don't know. That's an awfully weird thing to include. You're right. it. You have to Yeah. right.

Sups 10:20

The last tradition, oranges and terraces. In Seia. Okay. The harvesting season for oranges in Seia, they start from the end of December until mid-February. Of course, oranges big thing in seia. That's what the city is known for. Every year in third week of January. The first batches of Marade is prepared by young people. And they barge into the town hall and they make their way to the terrace. And everybody's basically sharing marmalades in the terrace in the city square. And marmalade and not oranges. Because these oranges are the trees that are around the city square and this specific breed of oranges are too bitter to be eaten raw. That's why they make marmalade out of this. And once they're done the marmalade that is left is then gifted. to The royal family in Britain,

Andi 11:17

oh, here's the Marley we didn't

Tanner 11:18

eat. Yeah. What from Spain to Britain? What? Yes.

Andi 11:22

What? I do know that citrus is ripe in the winter. Mm-hmm. So that checks out. The marmalade thing. I don't really get this tradition. Like I've been to Seve a couple times. I don't remember the town hall, but it must be kind of unique that this terrace is big enough to host many people and it would be a place where you would throw a party dedicated to marmalade.

Tanner 11:44

Yeah. For Right.

Sups 11:46

the whole idea of this tradition, is because they produce so much oranges they can't get rid of the

Andi 11:53

can't get rid of'em

Sups 11:54

No, no, they can't. I mean, they're exporting as much. They can export. Right. They're consuming as much they can consume, but there's still a lot left.

Andi 12:02

It's weird. and half baked. Yeah. Which weirdly makes it sound more real.

Tanner 12:07

Yeah. It kind of sounds like some of those traditions where you don't know why you do it anymore. You just do it.

Andi 12:11

Yeah. eat Mar and it doesn't, it's like, well, what do you do? It's like we just hang out and eat Marmite. I don't know. Like What more do you need? Like

Tanner 12:17

Yeah.

Andi 12:18

Yeah. So in that way it seems more realistic actually. Like if he had a really succinct reasoning, that would sound more like a lie. Yeah. Because I feel like if you're making up a tradition, you would make up, this is exactly why we do this thing. Yeah. real human traditions tend to be messy. Yeah. So it makes it sound more realistic that it makes no sense. Mm-hmm. at all.

Tanner 12:40

Think why Yeah.

Andi 12:42

So I, think this one seems real.

Tanner 12:44

yeah, I dunno what holes to poke

Andi 12:46

it. Yeah. Okay. Those were very weird and interesting. Yeah. And almost all food related. Which is kind of a weird thing in the winter time is usually, you know, in Europe you don't have so much food everywhere, especially in Northern Europe. So it's interesting, so much about wasting and throwing food before we guess, which one is the fake? Can you please repeat the traditions

Sups 13:06

Absolutely. The first tradition is the ELs and far nuts, which is celebrated in ante Spain. The second tradition is the fire, bread and fish, which is observed in Bergin in Belgium. The third tradition is bonfire and gas station in Kip in Norway, and the fourth tradition is oranges and terraces. celebrated in Seia, Spain. One of them I just made up.

Tanner 13:46

Hmm. Wow.

Andi 13:48

So I think I'm gonna go with number two.

Tanner 13:53

Bergen. Yeah. The Belgian one.

Andi 13:55

The Flemish One.

Sups 13:56

Yes.

Andi 13:58

I have Flemish ancestry. Is

Tanner 14:00

that why you're leaning that way,

Andi 14:01

it sounds like the plot of like some frat movie. Like the whole drinking goldfish trope. It seems like an American, movie like that's what I'm guessing don't know why he picked flas, except he figured we know nothing about it. Maybe Cause it was just so weird and none of it made any sense. Which like we talked about in the last one as being something that sounds truthful, but there were so many parts to it and it didn't have a name. Yeah, or why it's happening. I was, keep trying to think. Like the last Sunday in February. Is that something else? but honestly it's tough.

Tanner 14:36

Yeah. I think it's the first one. I've heard of, you know, Sente as being a prank thing in like Latin America, but I've never heard of it in Spain specifically, and I have no idea if this town even exists, but the throwing of the flower and the murdering of the babies, I just cannot make those get connected in my head. And so I'm like, that can't be real.

Andi 14:56

Yeah, can't

Tanner 14:57

using his Spanish knowledge.

Andi 14:59

I mean, I, I agree. Like we talked about, like, yeah, he could just be using Spanish knowledge. I mean, it's weird. So weird and doesn't really connect. I kind of started to think that one sounded a little more real because it does have a better, like reason. At least that's a real holiday. Yes. He maybe made up the tradition what they do, but it is a real

Tanner 15:19

Right. December 28th is the day of the innocence. Okay. I believe that,

Andi 15:23

So the rest of it, I'm social. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And then number three. The bonfire. I mean, that's creative. It's really cool. I genuinely super impressed if that's the lie. Mm-hmm. And then yet, number four, I mean, also could be very made up, just like literally soups is like looking at a jar of marmalade, thinking about his trip to Spain and is like, oh yeah. They just eat marm on a

Tanner 15:46

Yeah. Why isn't English? Oh, maybe they send it to England. Hmm.

Andi 15:50

Yeah, I mean, sure. I don't know, man. It's weird. So it's tough. This is a hard one,

Tanner 15:56

It's very tough. I say number one.

Sups 15:59

All right. Both of them are actually true.

Tanner 16:01

traditional. Wow. Wow.

Sups 16:03

didn't make makeup.

Andi 16:04

what the, the hell is happening in Planters

Sups 16:07

I was using my Spanish knowledge Yes. But for a completely different fact, Which I called oranges and terraces. There's only the palace, like the huge palace, Al Kaar palace. And

Tanner 16:18

that's where

Sups 16:19

these oranges grow. creating marlet is like a huge culture in Seia, but got nothing to do with town hall and terraces like that part. And, in the 20th century they used to send some batches of this marlay to the British Royal family. So that part was true. No, they don't do that No, They used to do it, but then it stopped for some reason. know,

Andi 16:41

like, buy your own oranges.

Sups 16:43

Yeah, buy but there is no young people barging into the town hall, going to the terraces and enjoying marmalade, eating marmalade,

Tanner 16:52

Yeah.

Sups 16:52

yeah, just made it up, but it's totally fake.

Andi 16:55

that is the thing with traditions, right? They sound made up.

Tanner 16:58

Cause somebody at one time

Andi 16:59

did make, they

Tanner 16:59

up. just made up.

Andi 17:00

so based off of, in the Alza, there's a grove of Valencia oranges,

Sups 17:06

And those oranges are used to make

Tanner 17:09

Okay. Okay.

Sups 17:09

yeah.

Tanner 17:10

Cool.

Andi 17:10

Wow. I something new. Yeah. Yeah. Marm, it's not a party. Yeah.

Tanner 17:15

I should have known,

Andi 17:17

thanks for listening to this episode of the I Should Have Known podcast. We'll be continuing this theme about winter for the rest of the month. And as always, thanks for listening. I forgot what I'm doing. I'm tired.