Amanita Muscaria Mushrooms Created Santa
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Christmas is the most iconic holiday worldwide, and it is filled with strange traditions. Activities such as hanging stockings and singing songs about flying reindeer have become so deeply ingrained in Christmas that most don’t even think where it all came from.
When we trace Christmas traditions’ origins, we find many of the origins link back to the psychedelic mushroom amanita muscaria. The large red with white spots amanita muscaria mushrooms is the most recognizable.
Amanita Muscaria Mushrooms Created Christmas
Many people valued this mysterious mushroom for its powerful hallucinogenic properties throughout history and cultures.
For thousands of years, the indigenous of the artic collected amanita muscaria mushrooms. These people were called shamans.
The word shaman is derived from the indigenous peoples of Siberia, and it translates to a religious specialist.
The shaman would pick the amanita muscaria, dry them, and then load them into a big sack each year. Then, on December 21, the shaman would go house to house, delivering their gifts on the winter solstice.
These shamans were older long-bearded men who wore red and white to honour the mushroom. Unfortunately, during the winter solstice, the entryways to people’s homes were completely buried under snow.
So, it was easier for the shamans to drop the mushrooms down the smoke hole. This is where the idea for Christmas presents down the chimney comes from.
The Colours of Santa and Mushrooms
The colours of Christmas are red, white, and green. The colours symbolize the red and white for Amanita muscaria mushrooms under an evergreen tree.
The mushroom is found throughout the Northern hemisphere under coniferous and birch trees, just like red and white Christmas presents under the tree.
Although deaths from amanita mascara are infrequent, to reduce the toxicity, the shaman would hang the mushrooms on tree branches for them to dry, just like the colourful ordainments on a Christmas tree.
Santa’s flying reindeer have a similar connection to the amanita muscaria mushrooms. Reindeer are common across Europe and Siberia. Like the human inhabitants of these areas, they too consumed the mushrooms.
Siberians who ate the mushrooms may have hallucinated that the reindeer were flying. Siberians would also drink the urine of the reindeer as the hallucinogenic compounds would be held its urine without toxicity.
To add to things, Rodolph led the reindeer with his glowing red nose, which may have been a representation of the amanita muscaria mushroom leading the journey. And the elves who help Santa may go back to the spirits shamans described seeing during a mushroom trip.
The image of Santa himself closely resembles the look of amanita muscaria mushrooms.
