Frosty the Snowman

Do you want to

No matter what they

say, Frosty is a fairytale, just a snow sculpture, albeit with some human characteristics like a button nose and eyes made out of coal.

There’s no magic in Frosty the Snowman, but there sure is a lot of history. Frosty can’t be found in every state in the country. He exists in areas with lots of packable snow and may come to life in the hearts of moms and dads and their little ones who work together to build him and dress him in the appropriate accoutrements. Common accessories include branches for arms and a button or carrot for a nose. Coal was used for eyes back in the days when Coal was King but nowadays grapes can be used for eyes and blueberries for the mouth. A hat or scarf should be included. Use a candle snuffer for a corn pipe, for historical sake. In North America, snowmen are generally built with three spheres representing the head, torso, and lower body. In the United Kingdom, two spheres are used, one sphere representing the body and one representing the head. Japanese snowmen have two spheres and a bucket hat. In 2015, a man from Wisconsin made a snowman 22 feet tall and with a base 12 feet wide.

The record for the world's largest snowman was set in 2008 in Bethel, Maine. The snow-woman stood 122 feet 1 inch in height and was named in honor of Olympia Snowe, a U.S. Senator representing the state of Maine. Frosty-like art was found in periods during the Middle Ages when snow was used to create art, say scientists. It’s been said that Michelangelo built a snowman in the garden of the ruler of Florence. However, these days Florence only gets one inch of snow per year. Another legend goes that snowmen were used as stand-in guards during the Massacre of 1690. Fort Schenectady was under attack by Frenchmen and Native Americans. For about a week, they were navigating in snow that was about knee-deep. The way to the fort had been so strenuous that the Native Americans and the French were pre-

build a Snowman?

By Christine Fanning

pared to surrender if they were met with force. When the village was in sight, a blizzard had arrived and the north gate was opened. It turned out that the two guards who should have been at their post had abandoned it to indulge in some drinks at the pub. In their place, two snowmen were left as the guards. In what seems to us Frosty In 1853, after the camera was invented, Mary Dillwyn, a Welsh woman, tested her camera on a snowman. So Frosty may have been the first photographed subject. This Christmas season, have your camera and all snowman accessories at the ready. Watch the weather forecast and when it comes, bring Frosty back to life! H

lovers as a bit barbaric (though Happenings does not subscribe to ethnocentrism), people in Zurich, Switzerland take the Boogg, a cotton snowman stuffed with dynamite, throughout the town and throw bread and sausages to the onlookers. When the parade reaches its conclusion, the Boogg is set on a lit 40- foot wood pile. Its explosion signifies the end of the winter season.

–Christine Fanning