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Reindeer in the Wild|
Reindeer are members of the deer family (Cervidae, Rangifer), a cud-chewing hoofed mammal (ruminant) having a stomach divided into four compartments, are found in arctic and subarctic regions of Eurasia and North America, and travel hundreds of miles between their summer and winter grounds in herds of up to 200,000 animals. Reindeer are the only deer in which both sexes have antlers.
Reindeer feed on grasses in summer and lichen in winter. Reindeer have been hunted for about 30,000 years. They have been domesticated for many centuries in Lapland, N Siberia, and Mongolia, where they may be used for meat, milk, clothing, and transportation. They are used both to pull sleds and to carry burdens and riders. The Laplanders until recently were completely dependent upon the reindeer for their livelihood and followed the herds on their annual migrations. Reindeer living in a wild state in Eurasia are probably descended in part from domesticated strains. The wild reindeer of North America are called caribou, and are quite similar to the Eurasian species. The Eurasian reindeer, Rangifer tarandus, is a small deer, the male standing about 4 ft (120 cm) high at the shoulder and weighing about 250 lb (113 kg), but it is extremely strong and has great powers of endurance. A reindeer can travel 40 mi (64 km) a day, pulling twice its own weight on a sled. Reindeer have long fur, light brown in summer and whitish in winter, with dense woolly undercoats. Caribou have never been domesticated. Domesticated reindeer were introduced into Alaska from Siberia in the 1890s and became essential to the economy of the Alaskan Eskimo. Herds were established in Canada in the 1930s. |
Mythological Reindeer
Nordic Shamans, such as from Finnish Lapland where reindeer are herded, used deer-skin drums to induce visionary trances, or sought insights with the aid of hallucinatory mushrooms which Reindeer are known to nibble on. One of the sources of the myth of Santa Claus makes him a Lapp Shaman, a kind of Nordic witch-doctor. English texts from the Renaissance mention the display of antlers during Christmas dances centuries before any belief in Santa Claus.
Reindeer go crazy for fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria). Lapp shamans used to eat the mushroom during the midwinter pagan ceremonies of Annual Renewal. When the shamans awoke from the initial coma-like slumber induced by the drug, their muscular systems were highly stimulated, so that a small effort produced spectacular results such as making a gigantic leap.
The effect on animals was generally the same, and a mushroom-maddened super-reindeer traditionally guarded each shaman. When missionaries first reached Santa's native Lapland, they found a thriving pagan myth of reindeer flight. They shrewdly assimilated the stories into the folklore of Christmas and Saint Nicholas. This then, is the true origin of the legend of Santa's flying sleigh. The colour scheme of his outfit is taken from the unmistakable red and white cap of the fungus. Lapps still scatter the mushroom in the snow to round up reindeer. Clement Moore's depiction of Santa Claus in 'The Night Before Christmas' was borrowed from Teutonic and Norse notions of an impish but jovial figure who presided over the mid-winter festivals of pagan origins. The Santa Claus myth was elaborated in 1939, when a short story written by Robert Mays introduced the endearing Rudolf, a red-nosed reindeer. Ten years later, the story was written as a song by Jonny Marks. The character 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' was created by Mays for the Montgomery Ward group of department stores. Six million copies of the storybook were distributed in 1946. |
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Had a very shiny nose,
And if you ever saw him,
You would even say it glows.
All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names,
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games.
Then one foggy Christmas eve
Santa came to say:
Rudolph with your nose so bright,
Won't you guide my sleigh tonight?
Then all the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee,
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer,
You'll go down in history!
