Winter quiz with answers about the snowman for primary schoolchildren

Quiz

Below is the largest lump,
Slightly smaller lump on it.
Even smaller is the head,
We barely made it.

Eyes are cones, nose is a carrot.
They put the hat on deftly.
A bright scarf, a broom in his hands.
And the kids are happy.
1.Who made the snow figure of a snowman for the first time?
(Italian sculptor Michelangelo Buanarroti)

A. Shlygin

Why look for it in the mountains?
You will find it in the courtyards.
From year to year, from century to century
Bigfoot lives here.

He's on the yard heel
Stands holding a broom in his hand.
He amuses the guys all day long
I pulled the bucket on one side...

A. Brodsky

We made a great snow woman.
For glory, for glory, for fun.
She looks at us with black eyes,
It's like laughing with two coals.
Although our woman is standing with a broom,
But don't let her seem evil to you.
We put a bucket on her instead of a hat...
The game is more fun with a snow woman.

The nose is a carrot, the coal is eyes,
Snowman from a children's fairy tale!
Hands are branches, mouth is candy...
Let it stand now until summer

The snowman is the real spirit of winter! Russian winter transforms the world with its frosty breath. Everything becomes like a wonderful fairy tale: white fluffy snow flies, the sleeping earth covered with a winter blanket sparkles in the sun... And in every yard, as if by magic, funny snowmen wrapped in scarves appear.

This fun winter activity has been known to people for centuries. But not many people know what supernatural meaning the snowman had in the past... Find out about this from our article and look at the photos that will surely make your mood festive and inspire your own creativity!

If you believe the old legend, at the end of the 15th century, around 1493, the Italian sculptor, architect and poet Michelangelo Buonarroti first sculpted a snow figure. The image of a snow figure first appeared as an illustration for a children's book with songs published in Leipzig.

The first snowmen were portrayed as evil, ferocious snow monsters of impressive size. This is no coincidence, because in those ancient times, merciless winters with their severe frosts and dank blizzards brought a lot of trouble.

Most likely, it was then that beliefs appeared that snow creatures pose a real threat to people. For example, it was believed that sculpting them during the full moon was dangerous: for a person, disobedience could result in obsessive nightmares, night terrors and, in general, all sorts of failures.

And in Norway there was a legend that it was dangerous to look at a snow figure late in the evening from behind a curtain; In addition, it was considered a bad sign to meet her on your way at night, and it was recommended to avoid her.

It was only in the 19th century that snow creatures “grew up” and soon became an indispensable attribute of Christmas and New Year. Greeting cards featuring a cute, smiling snowman surrounded by cheerful children quickly gained popularity.

According to an ancient European parable, St. Francis of Assisi considered the creation of snow figures as a unique method of fighting demons. And according to another Christian legend, snowmen are angels, because snow is a gift from heaven. This means that the snow man is none other than an angel who can convey people’s requests to God. To do this, they sculpted a snow figure from freshly fallen snow and quietly whispered their desire to it. They believed that as soon as it melted, the request would immediately be delivered to heaven and would soon be fulfilled.

In Europe, snowmen were always made next to houses, generously decorated with garlands and household utensils, wrapped in scarves, and given branchy brooms.

The mystical character is discernible in the details of their attire.

For example, a carrot was attached instead of a nose to appease the spirits who sent harvests and fertility.

An inverted bucket on the head symbolized prosperity in the house.

In Romania, the custom has long been known to decorate a snow figure with beads made from garlic heads: it was believed that this promotes the health of household members and protects them from the mischief of dark forces.

Wonderful children's fairy tales are dedicated to snowmen, the most famous of which is “The Snowman” by H. H. Andersen. In it, the dog told the snowman about his life, about people and about the stove where he loved to warm himself when he was a puppy. And he also had an inexplicable desire to get closer to the stove; it seemed to him that something was moving inside him. All day long, instead of enjoying the biting frost, he was sad, looking at the stove through the window... Spring came, and the snowman melted. And only then was an explanation for his sadness found: he was fixed on a poker, which moved in him at the sight of his native stove.

In Rus', snow figures have been sculpted since ancient pagan times and were revered as the spirits of winter. They, like Santa Claus, were treated with due respect and asked for help and to reduce the duration of severe frosts. By the way, snow women and the Snow Maiden are our Russian heritage.

Our ancestors believed that winter natural phenomena - fog, snow, blizzards - were controlled by female spirits, therefore, to show them their respect, they sculpted snow women. It’s not for nothing that the expressions “mother winter” and “father frost” exist. And the month of January was sometimes even called “snowman”.

Since ancient pagan times, in the understanding of the Russian people (as well as some peoples Northern Europe) snowmen are angels descended from heaven. After all, snow is a gift from heaven. This means that the snowman is none other than an angel who can convey people’s requests to God. For this, a little snowman was sculpted from freshly fallen snow and their cherished wish was quietly whispered to him. They believed that as soon as the snow figure melted, the wish would immediately be taken to heaven and soon come true.

Cutely smiling toy snowmen have always been especially popular with children. In the glorious Soviet cartoons “The Postman Snowman” and “When the Christmas Trees Light Up,” the snowman acts as Santa Claus’s faithful assistant around the house.

In the Soviet Union, snowmen were artfully painted on greeting cards. It is clear from Soviet greeting cards that the snowman was one of the most beloved New Year's characters.

Today, in our civilized world, creating snow figures remains not only a favorite pastime for children, but also a socially organized holiday. Records are being set all over the world for sculpting the largest snowmen.

The tallest snow woman in Europe flaunts on the slopes of a ski resort in Austria, in the city of Galtür: its height has reached 16 meters 70 centimeters.

When winter comes and fluffy white snowflakes begin to fall from the sky, the world is transformed, becoming like a beautiful fairy tale. And in this winter's tale new heroes appear - snowmen, whom the children noisily and joyfully sculpt, even if there is still just a little snow.

And if the snow has piled up thoroughly, then adults often join in this fun fun. And in almost every yard a snowy figure with a carrot nose appears, wrapped in an old scarf or shawl.

Yes, you probably yourself remember how you rolled large white koloboks out of freshly fallen snow and stacked them on top of each other, trying to make your snowman come out big and beautiful. And hardly anyone wondered where the tradition of making snowmen came from and who they actually are.

It turns out that snowmen appeared quite a long time ago. As the ancient legend says, he made the first snow figure great Italian Michelangelo Buonarroti around 1493.

Historians claim that snow figures were mentioned in writing in the 18th century: in one of the books we're talking about O beautiful snowman gigantic size. The first image of a snowman and the name “schneeman” itself appeared in Germany, in a children's book published in Leipzig.

In the old days, snowmen were considered far from funny and good characters. On the contrary, they were portrayed as huge, evil, ruthless and ferocious monsters. This is not surprising, because it was not so easy for people to survive the winter with bitter frosts and blizzards and blizzards. Winters brought a lot of troubles and snowmen became a symbol of a real threat, the personification of cold, evil and death itself. ++

Various signs associated with these winter monsters also appeared: for example, they believed that you should not make snowmen on a full moon - disobedience entailed various troubles and failures, and also threatened with obsessive nightmares and fears.

The Norwegians believed that it was very dangerous to look at a snowman from the window when it was already dark outside. Probably, in the ghostly moonlight, the imposing figure standing in the snow really looked creepy.

A chance meeting with a snowman on the road at night also did not bode well, so travelers avoided the snowy figures.

Snowmen could not be made in cemeteries, in places where executions were carried out, and near churches.

But gradually the attitude towards snowmen changed and people stopped seeing them as something scary and evil. In the 19th century, these snow creatures became cute and kind, joining the ranks of Christmas and New Year characters. Greeting cards with cute smiling snowmen surrounded by happy children have become very popular.

Europeans traditionally refer to snowmen as male, therefore, in pictures and postcards you can often see this creature with purely masculine attributes in the form of a bow tie and a tall hat. "Snowman" is the only word in the English language that means snowman.

After the snowmen “got older,” their mystical properties also began to be perceived differently. And suddenly the snowmen turned from dark, cold demons into real angels! A belief has emerged that snowmen are able to convey people’s requests and prayers directly to the Lord in heaven. To do this, you had to make a snow figure, quietly whisper your innermost desire to it and wait for spring. The spring sun will melt the heavenly messenger and the desire will ascend to Heaven, and then will certainly come true.

According to another ancient version, Saint Francis of Assisi believed that creating snowmen was one of the ways to fight demons.
In Rus', snowmen have been sculpted since Vedic times, that is, long before the Christianization of the Slavs. Russian snowmen were female, and they were called snow women. Our ancestors were convinced that such sculptures ward off snowstorms, blizzards and other bad weather.

Later they began to believe that Santa Claus commands the snowmen, and the more of these sculptures they sculpt, the stronger fairy tale character can influence people's lives. It is noteworthy that in Rus', unlike Europe, the snow woman has always been an exclusively positive character.

A little about traditions

Today, snowmen are an indispensable decoration of the New Year and Christmas holidays. They are molded into different countries, if only there was snow. The snowman's nose is made from a carrot, icicle, pine cone, corn cob or berries (Europe). Eyes can be coals, pebbles, glass, or even ordinary bottle caps and other objects of suitable shape. The mouth can be drawn or laid out from berries, pebbles, finely broken twigs - in general, from anything that is at hand.

They also dress up snowmen in accordance with their imagination: some limit themselves to a traditional bucket, some to an old hat, while others create intricate headdresses from a wide variety of materials and wrap the snowman in scarves, shawls, old clothes and other unnecessary things. You can also paint a snowman with the most ordinary watercolors.

But, like all things that came to us from ancient times, the details of the snowman’s appearance were initially important.

For example, the carrots from which the nose was made could appease the gods of fertility and harvest. A hat in the shape of an inverted bucket promised the family prosperity and wealth, and beads made from garlic heads (Romanian custom) were able to protect the family from diseases and evil forces. All things that were used to sculpt the snowman became his “property” - they were never taken back.

In Europe, snowmen were always made next to houses, lavishly decorated, and given brooms. According to superstition, a snowman protects a home from attacks by intruders. The impressive brooms that were given to snowmen were nothing more than a tool for dispersing gray snow clouds. Snowmen had to take care of good weather.

Unlike European snowmen, which often have legs and are mounted on some hard object, and from Slavic snowmen, consisting of three balls placed on top of each other, Asian snowmen are molded from two parts. One big one snowball becomes the body, and the other, smaller one, becomes the head. The Japanese snowman has a name: Yuki-Daruma, where Yuki means "snowman"

Daruma also has one more difference from the snowmen we are used to - in the center of his large belly, a cave is hollowed out, where a burning candle is placed.

Meaning Daruma snowman easy to figure out. Snow is purity, a sign of purification, a candle is warmth, sincerity; cordial, warm attitude.

For the Japanese, Daruma is a wish-granting deity. To do this, make a wish on his image (a drawing on paper, a figurine) and draw one eye. If within a year his wish is fulfilled, then his second eye is completed. If the wish is not fulfilled, it is burned. Daruma with one eye should always be in sight ( workplace, shelf at home, etc.).

By the way, did you know that January 18 is World Snowman Day? So you have the opportunity to start new tradition in your family by organizing a festive family sculpting of snowmen and snow women in your yard or somewhere in nature. Add some nice and funny festive events, and finally, let each holiday participant whisper a secret dream to a personal snowman. Who knows, maybe our ancestors were right and snow angels will really help make your wishes come true.

To make the holiday memorable for a long time, you can prepare small souvenirs in the form of snowmen for everyone. What to make it from - think for yourself. If you want your gifts to last for a long time, then make snowman dolls from fabric, yarn, socks, wood and other materials. You can also make edible snowmen from candies, marshmallows, cottage cheese or other goodies. Children will be indescribably delighted with such a surprise.

Popular snowmen

The snowman has long and firmly occupied a place in literature and cinema. In children's fairy tales and cartoons, this character is usually friendly, cheerful and kind.

The most famous fairy tale belongs to the pen of H. H. Andersen and is called: “The Snowman”. In this fairy tale, the yard dog tells the snowman about his life, about people and about the stove where he loved to warm himself when he was a little puppy. From this story, the snowman suddenly develops an inexplicable craving for the stove. It seems to him that something is stirring in him when he watches the stove through the window. Instead of the joy of a snowy and frosty winter, he yearns for an unattainable hot stove.

But spring came and the mystery of the snowman was revealed when he melted under the rays of the sun. It turns out that it was mounted on a large iron poker, for which the stove was close and dear.

There is also a popular German fairy tale, “The Dream of the Brown Snowman.” In this fairy tale main character- chocolate snowman - dreams of seeing snow. The boy takes the snowman outside, and he enjoys the frosty winter day, the sparkling white snow and noisy children's games.

Gradually, white snowflakes cover the chocolate and the snowman thinks that he is becoming as white as the world around him. And the boy, realizing that his friend will never become truly snow-white, still does not dare to disturb the illusory happiness of the little chocolate snowman.

Our kids really fell in love with the snowman from the wonderful old Russian cartoons “The Postman Snowman” and “When the Christmas Trees Light Up,” where this character is Santa Claus’s faithful assistant. On Soviet postcards a snowman was drawn as often as Father Frost or the Snow Maiden.

In our country, unlike Europe and America, snowmen have never been perceived as some kind of evil creatures capable of harming people. But time has changed and foreign cinema gave us an unpleasant surprise in the form of numerous horror films, where the usual kind and sweet characters suddenly became like terrible monsters. This also affected snowmen.

In terms of their influence on humans, snowmen are very similar to scarecrows, mannequins and large dolls. Psychologists assure that any thing that has human outlines and dimensions, but is not a person, causes us to subconsciously dislike and even fear.

For this reason, characters such as animated snowmen have long appeared in literature and horror films. However, there are truly frightening cases that actually happened.

For example, in February 1993, a lonely elderly American woman from Appleton began pestering local police, claiming that a snowman, made by a neighbor's children, was wandering near her house at night. In the end, law enforcement officers went to the pensioner and examined the snowman, even separated his head and then attached it back. The snow sculpture showed no signs of life.

The woman did not stop making calls, and representatives of the law visited her again - this time to warn her about responsibility for false calls. However, imagine the surprise of the policemen when they noticed that the snowman was already standing in a different place. The pensioner continued to claim that the animated statue wanders around her yard at night and even tries to open the locked front door.

Law enforcement officers broke the ill-fated sculpture out of harm's way, but the woman called that same evening and reported that the snowman had appeared again. The police wrote it off as a joke by the woman’s neighbors, but the American woman herself had no doubt that the snowy figure came to life at night and wanted to get to her.

It is unknown how it would have ended this story, if the thaw had not come and the notorious snowman had not melted. The pensioner, by the way, after that moved to live in the south, where there is no snow, and therefore no snowmen - all this mysticism scared her so much.

Of course, such stories can be explained very prosaically, - bad jokes neighbors or mental disorders of the eyewitnesses themselves, but such incidents are easily exaggerated yellow press and filmmakers, causing impressionable people to panic at the slightest provocation.

Record-breaking snowmen

The most interesting figures, figurines and snowman figures are annually included in various record rankings around the world. Some record holders try to surpass their achievements again and again. For example, in the small American town of Bethel in 1999, a four-ton snowman 35 meters high was built, 9 years later local residents tried to increase the record-breaking figure to 6 tons and 37 meters in height.

The tallest snowman in Europe flaunts on the slopes of a ski resort in Austria, in the city of Galtür: its height has reached 16 meters 70 centimeters.

Another record holder was a resident of Anchorage, whose name is Billy Power. Every winter since 2005, Billy has sculpted the famous Snowzilla out of snow, and every year his snow monster gets taller. The giant snow sculptures have already caused controversy when the 7m snowman scared Billy's neighbors because they were afraid that Snowzilla would simply collapse on their property and bury them in tons of snow. Local authorities ordered the removal of the winter symbol, but regular protests by activists advocating for the preservation of the figure continued until Anchorage changed its mayor. Now Power is sculpting Snowzilla with official permission from the authorities.

The case of Billy Power and his Snowzilla is also interesting because it symbolizes the influence of new cultural movements on the shape of snowmen. In addition to him, snowmen in the style of the comic book “Calvin and Hobbes” are very popular in the world, the main character of which was very fond of sculpting strange figures from snow. So now, instead of traditional balls in top hats, buckets and brooms, you can see a mutant snowman with two heads or a snowman lying on the ground, from whose body a tree rises.

On the Internet you can see photographs of snowmen in the image of the most popular hero of the Japanese cartoon “My Neighbor Totoro”.

With the arrival of winter, everything becomes like a wonderful fairy tale, and funny snow men wrapped in scarves appear in every yard, as if by magic. This fun winter idea has been known to people for centuries, but not many people know what supernatural meaning was attached to snowmen in the past...
If you believe the old legend, at the end of the 15th century, around 1493, the Italian sculptor, architect and poet Michelangelo Buonarroti first sculpted a snow figure.

According to historical research, the first written mention of a snowman is found in a book of the 18th century: it talks about a “beautiful snowman” of gigantic proportions. And the word “schneeman” itself, that is, “snowman”, originally appeared in the German language.

The image of a snow figure first appeared as an illustration for a children's book with songs published in Leipzig.

The first snowmen were portrayed as evil, ferocious snow monsters of impressive size. This is no coincidence, because in those ancient times, merciless winters with their severe frosts and dank blizzards brought a lot of trouble.

Most likely, it was then that beliefs appeared that snow creatures pose a real threat to people. For example, it was believed that sculpting them during the full moon was dangerous: for a person, disobedience could result in obsessive nightmares, night terrors and, in general, all sorts of failures. And in Norway there was a legend that it was dangerous to look at a snow figure late in the evening from behind a curtain;

It was only in the 19th century that snow creatures “grew up” and soon became an indispensable attribute of Christmas and New Year. Greeting cards featuring a cute, smiling snowman surrounded by cheerful children quickly gained popularity. It is curious that in the minds of European peoples, a snowman is always a male creature; they never had snow women or snow maidens. In English there is only one word for it - snowman.
According to an ancient European parable, St. Francis of Assisi considered the creation of snow figures as a unique method of fighting demons. And according to another Christian legend, snowmen are angels, because snow is a gift from heaven. This means that the snow man is none other than an angel who can convey people’s requests to God. To do this, they sculpted a snow figure from freshly fallen snow and quietly whispered their desire to it. They believed that as soon as it melted, the request would immediately be delivered to heaven and would soon be fulfilled.

In Europe, snowmen were always made next to houses, generously decorated with garlands and household utensils, wrapped in scarves, and given branchy brooms. The mystical character is discernible in the details of their attire. For example, a carrot was attached instead of a nose to appease the spirits who sent harvests and fertility. An inverted bucket on the head symbolized prosperity in the house. In Romania, the custom has long been known to decorate a snow figure with beads made from garlic heads: it was believed that this promotes the health of household members and protects them from the mischief of dark forces.

Wonderful children's fairy tales are dedicated to snowmen, the most famous of which is “The Snowman” by H. H. Andersen. In it, the dog told the snowman about his life, about people and about the stove where he loved to warm himself when he was a puppy. And he also had an inexplicable desire to get closer to the stove; it seemed to him that something was moving inside him. All day long, instead of enjoying the biting frost, he was sad, looking at the stove through the window... Spring came, and the snowman melted. And only then was an explanation for his sadness found: he was fixed on a poker, which moved in him at the sight of his native stove.

Photo: Blue Popovic
The hero of another good German fairy tale, Der Wunsh des braunen Schneemannes (“The Brown Snowman’s Dream”) by Mandy Vogel, is a chocolate snowman. He dreams of seeing snow, and his friend, the boy Tim, takes him outside. The snowman is delighted with the white winter day and children playing snowballs. In the end, he himself is covered with snow and sincerely rejoices at this, thinking that now he is as white as everyone else around him. But Tim, seeing that his fabulous brown friend is still far from perfect whiteness, does not dare to disturb his happiness.

In Rus', snow figures have been sculpted since ancient pagan times and were revered as the spirits of winter. They, like Santa Claus, were treated with due respect and asked for help and to reduce the duration of severe frosts. By the way, snow women and the Snow Maiden are our Russian heritage.