This study analyzes the evolution and impact of Icelandic mythology surrounding the Yule Lads and their family, with a specific focus on how these stories affected their beliefs and behaviors from the early 1900s to the present. These folklore figures include the thirteen Yule Lads, their mother Grýla, their father Leppalúdi, and their cat. Icelandic texts from the 13th century describe these characters as terrifying, with Grýla renowned as a cannibalistic figure in Icelandic history. The study intends to explore how stories and anxieties about the Yule Lads have evolved throughout time. The main question is how traditions and myths involving Yule Lads and Grýla have changed over the past century. What roles did these personalities play in early twentieth-century Icelandic Christmas traditions, and what changes have happened since? Additional inquiries investigate the causes of these shifts and their influence on modern Icelandic culture. The study combines historical analysis of folklore collections with present-day interviews to get insight into the cultural importance and history of these stories.

This dissertation is looking into the Czech and Moravian Christmas traditions in detail. The theoretical part provides a complete picture and characteristic of the Christmas period. The focus then turns to topics discussing the historical background, timelines, Christmas symbolic, sayings and mainly the Christmas traditions. The theory mostly draws on resources from expert literature, which is supplemented with information from other resources on the given topic. In the practical part, the author then analyzes the different ways of spending Christmas times in the Central Czech and South Moravian regions in depth. The course of the Christmas time was mapped by interviews with chosen respondents from contemporary Czech households. The adherence to or diversion from traditions, new trends and tendencies and the influence of commercialization on the Christmas holidays were given a higher importance. The closing chapter is dedicated to a comparison, whose main goal was to explain the eventual differences in adherence to Christmas traditions among sociocultural characteristics, mainly by the location.

of thesis children's knowledges of words accociated with Christmas The thesis is concerned with Christmas traditions, particularly from the point of view of children. The thesis presents the evolution of Christmas celebrations, some of the traditions, and it also compares certain Christmas songs and carols, and thus demonstrates the evolution of Christmas related vocabulary. Furthermore, the thesis also presents a brief overview of the evolution of children's vocabulary. In the practical part, the thesis attempts to answer the question of which Christmas related words children aged 9 - 12 years are familiar with. For the purpose of this practical research, the author of the thesis created a questionnaire containing 10 specific Christmas related words that children were asked to explain. The research results show that children seem to have a relatively good passive knowledge of commonly used words associated with Christmas, but in many cases they find it difficult to actively demonstrate this knowledge, i.e. to define, explain those words. In general, the girls describe the meaning of words better than boys. Children attending religious schools have apparently greater knowledge of words associated with religious meaning of Christmas than children from state schools. Comparison of age do not show...