Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind, focusing in non mythical creatures, ideas and monsters.
Speaker 2: In time, the winter holidays have arrived once more. It's
Speaker 2: a time for festive foods by the fire, a time
Speaker 2: for the giving of gifts, and of course, a time
Speaker 2: for parading through the streets with the head of a
Speaker 2: dead horse. I speak of the hooden horse or holden
Speaker 2: a tradition from Kent in southeast England that dates back
Speaker 2: to at least the eighteen hundreds, but with likely roots
Speaker 2: to much older pre Christian traditions. I first read about
Speaker 2: this practice in the nineteen eighty seven Enchanted World volume
Speaker 2: The Book of Christmas, which features a beautiful illus by
Speaker 2: visual artist Matt Mahurn that depicts a ghostly humanoid horse
Speaker 2: stamping and prancing down a misty street. The book describes
Speaker 2: the Christmas Eve tradition in which a man in a
Speaker 2: sheet or horse blanket brandishes a wooden horsehead or an
Speaker 2: actual horse skull, and proceeds down the street. Children might
Speaker 2: cower inside their homes at the hoden's approach, but the
Speaker 2: braver kids might run out and try to mount the horse.
Speaker 2: Adults would come out and watch, or perhaps throw sweets
Speaker 2: or money before the creature or into its mouth for
Speaker 2: good luck. Jeff and fran Dole explore the tradition in
Speaker 2: depth in their excellent two thousand and nine book Folklore
Speaker 2: of Kent. They mentioned that the name Hooden might be
Speaker 2: a reference to the hooded or disguised aspect of the creature,
Speaker 2: but with possible connections to wooden horses, twelfth century Germanic chieftains,
Speaker 2: or even the Germanic god Woden. In this respect, many
Speaker 2: crimes have pointed out a likely connection to much older
Speaker 2: traditions of animal sacrifice involving the horse. Many of the
Speaker 2: accounts the authors share in this book involve a wooden
Speaker 2: puppet head for the horse, articulated to snap it onlookers
Speaker 2: and gobble up their offerings, well except for the beer,
Speaker 2: of course, speaking of offerings of beer. The practice of
Speaker 2: the hooden horse is reminiscent of various wahsail traditions and
Speaker 2: even of Christmas caroling, though the procession seems to have
Speaker 2: involved no songs or set words, just as the hoden
Speaker 2: horse's origins are lost to the fog of history, the
Speaker 2: practice might well have vanished into the fog of modernity
Speaker 2: if it were not for the work of Percy Mayleem
Speaker 2: in the late nineteenth century. He investigated, photographed, and chronicled
Speaker 2: the surviving hooden horse traditions, and together with surviving hooden
Speaker 2: horse heads of wood, the work has helped to inform
Speaker 2: the practice's twenty eight century revival. And so this Christmas Eve,
Speaker 2: listen for the sound of prancing hoofs in the street
Speaker 2: and the snapping of wooden jaws. The hoodeners might be
Speaker 2: coming with their strange horse, their grooms, their drivers, their
Speaker 2: wagoneers and jockeys, their musicians and mollies, all in attendance.
Speaker 2: Bring forth your sweets, your coins, your beer, for the
Speaker 2: hooden Horse has come to you. Merry Christmas. Tune in
Speaker 2: for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week. As always,
Speaker 2: you can email us at contact It's Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind dot com.
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