Frog on a Fly Agaric Mushroom Ornament

Description

Beautifully detailed Hand Blown Glass ornament imported from Ukraine perfect to adorn your altar or Christmas tree.

Fly agaric has also been a popular icon for the Midwinter and Christmas festivities in central Europe for a long time and is found on Christmas cards and as replica decorations for tree and wreath. Our current concept of Santa Claus can be traced back as an amalgamation of several characters of popular European folklore, such as a more pagan Scandinavian house goblin who offered protection from malevolent spirits in return for a feast at midwinter, and the fourth century Byzantine archbishop who became St Nicolas and was renowned for his kindness to children. More recently it has been suggested that the Siberian use of fly agaric may have played a part in the development of the legend of Santa Claus too. At midwinter festivals the shaman would enter the yurt through the smoke hole and down the central supporting birch pole, bringing with him a bag of dried fly agaric. After conducting his ceremonies he would leave the same way he had come. Ordinary people would have believed the shaman could fly himself, or with the aid of reindeer which they also knew to have a taste for fly agaric. Santa is now dressed in the same colours as the fly agaric, carries a sack with special gifts, comes and goes via the chimney, can fly with reindeer and lives in the ‘Far North’.

An old Ukrainian folktale tells the story of a little frog that jumped into a bucket of cream and started swimming and splashing but couldn’t get out. The frog kept swimming, hoping he wouldn’t drown. Eventually he felt something under his feet and he jumped out. All the swimming had churned the cream into butter.

Many depictions in art of the Russian folk witch Baba Yaga show her with mushrooms, especially the Fly Agaric (the red-capped, white-spotted mushroom also associated in children’s illustrations with fairies and gnomes). As Baba Yaga is Russia’s most famous witch, hunting mushrooms is Russia’s favorite pastime, and both Baba Yaga and mushrooms are found in the forest, it makes sense that the two would become entwined. Also, the fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) is a psychoactive mushroom that can cause hallucinations, euphoria, and death. Baba Yaga is immortal and embodies the dual nature of life and death, and, like a hunter of mushrooms in the woods, you can search out Baba Yaga and perhaps be granted a boon, if you are clever enough. Or perhaps you’ll die. With her long scraggly white hair, large nose, and iron teeth, Baba Yaga is so ugly she is almost beautiful, like many types of mushrooms. The past few years have seen an interesting trend of women connecting with Baba Yaga and her fierce countenance.

You will receive 1 little handsome frog on a mushroom