Now, we can't get too excited here - sexual intercourse is only implied - but it held great significance for the Inuit as it favoured the hunting of game. The couples then returned to the home of the women, where they would remain man and wife for the next day and night. Franz Boas, the father of American anthropology described two huge figures disguised in tattooed seal masks and heavy boots line up men and women and pair them off in a paper from 1888.

Showing the bloody harpoon to your community, you could then get ready for some tug-o-war, cross-dressing, feasting and wife-swapping. Luring her up with a magic song, you would spear her, only to have her invariably escape and return to the underworld. Pre-Christianity, if you were in the Central Artic during the winter solstice, you'd be getting ready to harpoon Sedna, the Goddess of the sea. Surely someone must have had the right idea? Inuits do more than just rub noses you know. Either way, Saint Nicholas is paradoxically the patron saint of prostitutes, despite his hand in preventing three women from going on the game. Variations in the story have St Nicholas throwing the last bag down the chimney or into one of the daughter's stockings after their father refuses help. His good deed was caught by the father on the third night. Wanting to keep his assistance secret, Saint Nicholas threw three bags of gold through his parishioner's window, one for the dowry of each daughter. Unable to pay for dowries for his three daughters, he had to consider selling his daughters into prostitution. He earned his beatification through his life-long servitude to the poor, and his defiant nature in defending Christian doctrine during the Great Persecution when Christians were given the choice of renouncing their faith or execution.Дespite his faith making his life precarious, his charity was endless and his most famous donation was to an impoverished parishioner. He was an orphan, left with an enormous inheritance from his parents. A Greek christian from Myra in Turkey, Saint Nicholas was born 280 years after the birth of Christ. This party took place on - would you believe it - December 25th.Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, is an amalgamation of different persona and folklore, but his story begins with Saint Nicholas. In the later Roman Empire, ' Dies Natalis of Sol Invictus' or the вЂњBirthday of the Unconquerable Sun,вЂќ was marked to celebrate the days getting longer and coming of the new year. Usually marked by gift-giving, feasting and general merriment, Saturnalia took place on 17 December and was stretched to three and then seven days long. Saturnalia, a Roman festival which took place in the winter, celebrated Saturn the god of agriculture, liberation and parties. It turns out pagan traditions are everywhere at Christmas, so when youвЂ™re decorating your tree this year, think about our druid ancestors and what they would have made of your handiwork. ItвЂ™s not that the whole of Christmas is plagiarised, but if you look youвЂ™ll see some long-running trends linked to pre-Christian Europeans. Have yourself a monstrous Christmas: Europe's scariest anti-santas.

The Icelandic brewery selling pea and red cabbage flavoured Christmas beer.

Yule saturnalia