“Do you want to build a snowman? Come on, let’s go and play”
Snowmen and their creation, far predate modern versions like Olaf and Frosty. They have a history far more colorful than the white of snow. It was a snowman who appeared on some of the first postcards, starred in some of the initial silent movies, and was the subject of a couple of the earliest photos, dating all the way back to the 1800s.
“Frosty the Snowman” helped cement our modern, snow manly vision of a corn cob pipe, button nose, and two eyes made out of coal. Frosty was based on a 1950 song meant to capitalize on the success of country singer Gene Autry’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,”.
Snowmen are the head honcho of the holidays. But what do you really know about the frosty men outside of their corncob pipes, and magical top hats?
The first documented snowman appears in a 1380 manuscript called the ‘Book of Hours’, found in the Koninkijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, Netherlands. There is a somewhat disturbing illustration of a snowman being charred by fire. “The snowman conforms to comical, and mocking, depictions of Jewish people at the time, featuring a floppy hat and a sad face with a big, sloping nose. The snowman is built in the typical “ball” method, stacked on top of each other. Writing off to the side substantiates its “blame the Jews” purpose, as it announces the crucifixion of Jesus. Some historians think that this was merely comedy used to deal with the 1400s’ horrors of the Black Death.”
Snowmen also played a similarly politically motivated part during six weeks of subzero temperatures in 1511 during the “Winter of Death,” as Reader’s Digest tells us. To keep people’s spirits up, the government of Brussels organized a snow festival for its citizens.
The city of Brussels was covered in snowmen. A spectacular display that told stories on every street corner. The disgruntled masses used the opportunity to craft a “public art installation” of 100 snowmen mocking prominent church and government officials. Some were downright pornographic. “For the people of Brussels, this was their Woodstock, a defining moment of artistic freedom. At least until spring arrived, by which time the Belgians were dealing with damaging floods.” It helped that snow was an abundant free material, and didn’t require immense skill to fashion.
Snowmen were a phenomenon in the Middle Ages, built with great skill and thought. At a time of limited means of expression, snow was like free art supplies dropped from the sky. It was a popular activity for couples to stroll through town to view the temporary works of art. Some were created by famous artists, including 19-year-old Michelangelo.
Snowmen also played a part in the Schenectady Massacre of 1690, one of the bloodiest events in early American history. Fort Schenectady, in what is now upstate New York, was a remote Dutch settlement under constant threat of attack. Unfortunately, one winter the gates became frozen open. Cold, creative soldiers guarding the gates left a pair of snowmen at their post to protect the town when they left to get out of a blizzard.
Unknown to them, a contingent of 210 French Canadian soldiers and Native Americans were approaching. Having traveled over three weeks in knee-deep, slushy snow, they were unfazed by the snowmen and invaded the fort, killing 60 villagers.
Every year since 1818, the people of Zurich, Switzerland, celebrate the beginning of spring by blowing up a snowman. On the third Monday of April, the holiday Sechseläuten is kicked off when a cotton snowman called the Böögg is stuffed with dynamite and paraded through town by bakers, blacksmiths, and other tradesmen, who throw bread and sausages to the crowds.
The parade ends with the Böögg being placed on a 40-foot pile of scrap wood. After the bells of the Church of St. Peter have chimed six times, representing the passing of winter, the pile is lit. When the snowman explodes, winter is considered officially over. The shorter the combustion, the longer summer is said to be.
Fine artists over time have used the snowman to flex their creative muscles. On the morning of New Year’s Day 1857, sculptor Larkin Mead unveiled an 8-foot-high snow-and-ice statue in Brattleboro, Vermont. The heavenly figure held a pen and paper which became known as the “Recording Angel.” It was said to be so lifelike, schoolboys refrained from pelting it with snowballs. The New York Tribune sent a reporter to cover it, the image went worldwide, and Mead became a national phenomenon.
“Do You Wanna Build A Snowman? What are we gonna do? Do you want to build a snowman?”
Building snowmen is a traditional winter pastime that many associate with family, friends, childhood, hot cocoa, hats with pom-poms, snowball fights, Christmas morning, and all sorts of related, holiday experiences.
Not all snow-creations come with corncob pipes. In Japan, snowmen are made with two balls, one big and one small atop it, and without arms. They are to resemble the daruma doll, which brings good luck. In China, going back to the 7th-century, Buddha statues are carved out of snow for families to worship in place of marble or wood.
The popular song “Frosty the Snowman” describes a snowman being decorated with a corncob pipe, button nose, coal eyes and an old silk hat. In North America, snowmen are generally built with three spheres representing the head, torso, and lower body. In the United Kingdom, two spheres are used, one sphere representing the body and one representing the head.
The usual practice is to decorate and dress the snowman. Common accessories include branches for arms and a smiley face made of stones, with a carrot used for a nose. Clothing, such as a hat or scarf, may be included.
As we all know making a snowman of powdered snow is difficult since it will not stick to itself, and if the temperature of packing snow drops, it will form an unusable denser form of powdered snow called the crust. “To make a good snowman, you need humidity,”. “The air in the North Pole is too dry. Eskimos have to frequently try multiple times when constructing igloos.” Snow becomes most suitable for packing when it approaches its melting point and becomes moist and compact.
Thus, a good time to build a snowman may be the warm afternoon directly following a snowfall with a sufficient amount of snow. Using more compact snow allows for the construction of a large snowball by simply rolling it until it grows to the desired size.
“Do you want to build a snowman? It doesn’t have to be a snowman. Do you want to build a snowman?”