Cheer or fear? Belsnickel is here! These are some of the scariest, meanest, and surprisingly most neutral winter holiday characters. Sabryna and Julianna discuss the terrifying Krampus, cannibalist scarecrow, and, a giant cat that eats anyone who hasn’t received clothes as a Christmas gift. So make sure to always give your loved ones some socks for the holidays (just to be safe)!

References

The Maccabees, Befana, and even St. Nicholas make an appearance in this special holiday episode! Julianna does her best to tell the story of how the menorah was successfully lit for 8 days in Greece while Sabryna journeys over to Italy for some more light-hearted holiday tales. Although this is the “nice list”, there are still beheadings and kidnappings galore

References

https://www.amazon.com/Hostess-Hospitality-Femininity-Expropriation-Identity/dp/0816647410

Week 2 of  Greek mythology! Since we think there just hasn’t been enough of the gods/goddesses lately, Sabryna and Julianna each take one interesting myth. Artemis, Athena, Zeus, and Poseidon are featured throughout, but it’s really all about the goddesses this week. With an LGBT relationship (sort of) and friendly competition, these are some of the most, and least, well-known myths.

References

https://www.greeklegendsandmyths.com/callisto.html

Everyone’s favorite gods to hate (other than Zeus and Hera, of course) are Demeter and Dionysus. Sure, we know that they’re responsible for wine and grains, but is there more to them? Yes! A lot more than we’d probably wanted to know… But now you can too, as Sabryna tells interesting tales of Demeter and Julianna does her best not to gag at the stories of Dionysus

Resources

Julianna, despite speaking fluent Spanish, struggles throughout the tale of Indigenous Venezulan goddess Maria Lionza. Sabryna tells the very strange story of Chilean water and earth snakes. With lots of pop culture references (including old Tumblr memes), this is a goofy, but informative, episode on Latin American mythology.

References

Sabryna conquers her fear of spiders with the tale of the weaver Arachne and Julianna makes far too many comments on eating horses. There’s wine/god-induced hallucinations, man-eating sea turtles, and, you probably didn’t guess it, plenty of people getting kicked off of large cliffs. This is the weirdest Greek episode to date!

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It’s the day Julianna, Sabryna, & all of you listeners, have been waiting for… Halloween! Who doesn’t love a good scary story? (Especially if it’s released one day earlier than regular episodes). Julianna dips her toes into some not so well known history with Bloody Mary, and Sabryna mixes some true crime with folktales with a short report on the “Slenderman Attempted Murder” of 2014.

References

While omitting the more rated R aspects of their folklore, Sabryna talks about the succubi. There are, of course,  plenty of references to the tv show Lost Girl throughout. Julianna then tells the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. She speculates that Ichabod Crane’s fate is more than meets the eye. Gunpowder, the horse, is by far her favorite character.

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Julianna opens with the tale of Grecian Anthesteria; the old-school equivalent of All Souls Day. Sabryna goes on to  explain the Roman holidays of Feralia and Lemuria. From how Halloween costumes came to be, to how trick-or-treating originated, both Julianna and Sabryna discuss just how Halloween came to be in ancient times.

References

Sabryna relives her childhood via the Prince of Egypt film as Folk-Told Folk-Tales covers their first ever Egyptian episode! From Isis and the creation of the mummy to Set and some weird feline fetishes, Sabryna cracks plenty of jokes while Julianna learns about Egyptian myths like she was never taught in school. Another first is Julianna’s retelling of Japanese folklore. In her intermediate Japanese, she talks about the boy born from a peach and the moon maiden.

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