For this blog post, I have decided to talk about some of my favourite folktales. I grew up hearing all sorts of stories, some of which were written in my school books, such as the stories about the Village of Chelm. This village was said to be located in Eastern Europe and all within its borders operated on a kind of backwards logic. If problems were to arise, they would strive to solve it, and usually did so in the most convoluted way possible. In honour of this holiday season, I will tell one of my personal favourites:
Winter in the Village of Chelm was a very special time for its citizens. All would wait for the upcoming holiday of Channukah with baited breath, anticipating the candles, latkes, and dreidel games with much excitement. But for the mayor of Chelm, his most favourite thing of the season was the first snowfall. How he loved looking out his window to see the ground covered with a pure unblemished blanket of clean white snow! One morning in early December, the mayor got his wish. He woke up to look out his window to find the ground glittering and white. He jumped out of bed and ran to pull on his clothes. He raced to the front door of his house and stopped short.
"Oh no!" he thought. "If I go out for my morning walk, all this beautiful snow will be disturbed by my footprints. I can't have that. Whatever will I do?" He sat and thought, and could come up with no solution. He sent for his council of wisemen and they all came running to his home. He sat them down and told them his dilemma. They joined him in thought mulling over the problem of getting the mayor to go out for his walk through town without his disturbing the snow.
Much time passed and many ideas were proposed and swiftly discarded. He could not use snowshoes, for that would cause larger prints than his feet would. He could not fly, as he was a man. Finally one of them had an epiphany. What if they could make it so the mayor could fly over the snow, with his feet not touching the ground at all? A chair was quickly fetched, and the council gathered around, hoisting the seated mayor up onto their shoulders. Thus, he was carried out of his house and paraded around town, not touching the snow at all with all praising his wisdom.
Winter in the Village of Chelm was a very special time for its citizens. All would wait for the upcoming holiday of Channukah with baited breath, anticipating the candles, latkes, and dreidel games with much excitement. But for the mayor of Chelm, his most favourite thing of the season was the first snowfall. How he loved looking out his window to see the ground covered with a pure unblemished blanket of clean white snow! One morning in early December, the mayor got his wish. He woke up to look out his window to find the ground glittering and white. He jumped out of bed and ran to pull on his clothes. He raced to the front door of his house and stopped short.
"Oh no!" he thought. "If I go out for my morning walk, all this beautiful snow will be disturbed by my footprints. I can't have that. Whatever will I do?" He sat and thought, and could come up with no solution. He sent for his council of wisemen and they all came running to his home. He sat them down and told them his dilemma. They joined him in thought mulling over the problem of getting the mayor to go out for his walk through town without his disturbing the snow.
Much time passed and many ideas were proposed and swiftly discarded. He could not use snowshoes, for that would cause larger prints than his feet would. He could not fly, as he was a man. Finally one of them had an epiphany. What if they could make it so the mayor could fly over the snow, with his feet not touching the ground at all? A chair was quickly fetched, and the council gathered around, hoisting the seated mayor up onto their shoulders. Thus, he was carried out of his house and paraded around town, not touching the snow at all with all praising his wisdom.
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