Werewolves and Christmas

There is a very old belief that someone who was born on Christmas is a werewolf. In many European countries it's believed that if a child is born during Yule and on Christmas eve and Christmas day, they would most likely become a werewolf when they grow up. Certain rituals would have to occur early on while the person is still a baby to prevent this curse developing. 

This may be linked to the idea that the Winter Solstice was connected to pre-Christian beliefs in the old gods, and so Christmas time became linked to werewolves and other supernatural creatures and spirits. Most of all, the festive season today reminds everyone of elves, gnomes, fairies, angels and even ghosts. Monsters like werewolves are not just confined to Halloween period but tend to reveal themselves over Christmas. 

During the 15th century, a Swedish explorer named Olaus Magnus, travelled to places like Lithuania, Latvia and Prussia, and in those places he encountered packs of werewolves. He described them as gathering together at Christmas as though they were having a party! He found that they resembled wolves but had transformed this way from men. They were responsible for the many killings of humans and livestock in nearby villages. He mentioned they were different to regular wolves in many ways, because they could speak and drank beer. When these werewolves attacked villages, they also raided beer cellars. 

What else Magnus wrote about his travels, was the story of a disabled boy in Livonia, who travelled alone on Christmas, making friends with people, who were followers of Satan and there was many of them. It was believed violence occurred among them with an iron whip, and they revealed themselves to be wolves, that descended upon livestock animals and even people with bloodshed.  

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Skin changers

One of the most ancient ways to becoming a werewolf is believed to be wearing a wolf pelt. This was the case in ancient times, when warriors wore the pelt of a wolf that made them take on the traits of the wolves during battle. In Scandinavia, the Norse had a term for this, Berserkers, and most specifically Ulfhednar, which means "wolf head". The men wore the pelts of wolves and bears to enter a war, and this made them extremely aggressive. It isn't always warriors that became wolf mad while dressed in the skins of wolves. 

A married couple wore wolf pelts and became wolves. They encountered a priest, and the woman was dying of an illness while in the form of a she-wolf. The husband wolf spoke to the priest and described that both of them were under a curse and so the priest gave the she-wolf viaticum. Both satisfied the werewolves were grateful to the priest and helped him on his travels. This was referenced by Gerald of Wales (1146-1223) in Ossory, Ireland. 

Such stories like these are rife in the past, most of them passed down, but this is mainly because wolves were common and considered a threat. Wolves were everywhere in Britain and Ireland until they were wiped out in the 18th century. In ancient times, it was said that wearing anything belonging to wolf, including its skin, bones, teeth and it's skull, gave the person the supernatural ability to become a wolf. Pliny the Elder mentioned it as versipellis which means "skin changer."

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Werewolves and rabies

One of the most obvious ways to become a werewolf is to get attacked by a werewolf. It seems the most common in films and literature. A person who survives being attacked by a werewolf becomes infected by the same curse. A werewolf is mostly treated like a contagious disease and also a condition. The whole concept is very similar to how viruses behave, but mostly it's part of modern werewolf lore. It almost parallels the idea of getting bitten by a vampire that will turn someone. Yet the bite from a werewolf isn't just that alone, it can also be from the saliva or a scratch from a werewolf. The origins may come from reality and the most horrible of all diseases passed from animal to human, which is rabies. 

There was an article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, written in 1855, about a young woman in France who was mauled to death by her husband on their wedding night. The groom died soon afterwards. It was mentioned that sometime before the wedding, the man was bitten by a "strange dog" who passed on the infection. This was a tragic case of a man with rabies, who caught the disease after being attacked by an infected animal. There are many stories about people infected by rabies, which wasn't fully understood in times passed, so there was once the supernatural attached to it.

The historian Eugen Weber has said that the French peasantry feared "wolves, fire and mad dogs". The latter meaning dogs with rabies. For those living in the countryside it would've been one of the most terrifying things to encounter. Some scholars believe that the myth of werewolves was inspired by frightening true events about rabies because of its behaviour. The disease itself is fatal. Once a person has been infected with rabies, they go through various incubation phases, before declining in health and losing all sense of humanity, drooling, fevers, breathing problems, hallucinations and violent outbursts. Its as though a person loses a part of themselves. When rabies is too progressed, the victim won't be responsive to medicine. Its as though the rabid person became a werewolf.

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