As I write this, Christmas is fast approaching and so I started thinking about Christmas cat legends! Probably the most famous Xmas cat is NOT one of your cute Christmas cats, but rather a giant feline monster! Enter Jólakötturinn the yule cat! The AtlasObscura says this Christmas cat of Iceland was a black cat the size of a house, who would eat children who weren't wearing new clothes on Christmas! The origins of the story of the yule cat are hazy, but the Reykjavik Grapevine says written records of Jólakötturinn go back to the 19th century. Much like we might say "Santa's watching" to a misbehaving child to get them to behave, children in Iceland might have been warned to be good...
I've mentioned before that cats are well-loved throughout the world, but did you know that the cats that live in Mexico's National Palace have been declared "living fixed assets"? According to the Associated Press, this means that the treasury is obligated to feed and care for them for the rest of their lives, even when the current president leaves office in October. The article reports that staff members remember cats living in the gardens as far back as 50 years ago, and that these Mexican cats have become a symbol of the National Palace. It is unclear when they first got in or even how they got into the building, but there are 19 cats that live in the building...
This past Saturday was the start of Lunar New Year, and the start of the year of the dragon! That got me thinking...why is there no year of cat in the Chinese zodiac? (I mean besides the Tiger). I found there are actually some myths for how the cat got left out of the zodiac. MiaoMiaoKidz includes a story about the Jade Emperor calling for all the animals to have a swimming race in order to be included in the 12 years of the zodiac. At that time, so the story goes, the cat and rat were friends and they made a plan to ride on the back of the ox together. The ox agreed to carry the 2 friends across...
