A snowman is an Anthropomorphism snow sculpture of a man often built in regions with sufficient snowfall and is a common winter tradition. In many places, typical snowmen consist of three large snowballs of different sizes with some additional accoutrements for facial and other features. Due to the sculptability of snow, there is also a wide variety of other styles. Common accessories include branches for arms and a smiley made of stones, with a carrot used for a nose. Clothing, such as a hat or scarf, may be included.
Construction
Snow becomes most suitable for packing when it approaches its
melting point and becomes moist and compact. Making a snowman of powdered snow is difficult since it will not stick to itself, and if the temperature of packing snow drops, it will form an unusable denser form of powdered snow called the crust. Thus, a good time to build a snowman may be the next warm afternoon directly following a snowfall with a sufficient amount of snow. Using more compact snow allows for the construction of a large
snowball by simply rolling it until it grows to the desired size. If the snowball reaches the bottom of the snow layer it may pick up traces of grass, gravel, or dirt.
In North America, snowmen are generally built with three spheres representing the head, torso, and lower body.
There are variations to these standard forms; for instance, the popular song "Frosty the Snowman" describes a snowman being decorated with a corncob pipe, button nose, two coal eyes, and an old silk hat (usually depicted as a top hat). These other types range from snow columns to elaborate snow sculptures similar to .
File:BoiseSnowFamily8249.JPG|A "snow family" in Boise, Idaho, with various accessories
File:Snowman in Frankfurt - 2014 12 29.webm|Snowman in Frankfurt, Germany
File: Snowman on frozen lake.jpg|Snowman on a frozen Lake Saimaa in Puumala, South Savo, Finland
File: Self portrait in snow - geograph.org.uk - 648877.jpg|A snowman in Allendale, Northumberland, United Kingdom
File: A pair of snowmen on Roslags Näsby train station.jpg|Two small snowmen on a train station in Täby, Sweden
File: Schneemann - Snowman in Straubing, Bavaria 14-12-31.jpg|Snowman with hat, scarf, and winter gloves in Germany
File:Snowman in Virginia 2019.jpg|Snowman in an apartment courtyard at night in Virginia, United States
File:Mini snowman.webp|Mini snowman with baby carrot for a nose, for eyes, and for arms
One book describes classic snowman attachments as a black felt top hat, red scarf, coal eye pieces, carrot nose, and corn cob pipe.
History
Documentation of the first snowman is unclear. However,
Bob Eckstein, author of
The History of the Snowman, documented snowmen from the
Middle Ages by researching artistic depictions in European museums, art galleries, and libraries. The earliest documentation he found was an
Antisemitism marginal illustration from a 1380 book of hours, found in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in
The Hague.
was commissioned by Piero de' Medici to make a snowman in 1494.
[Andres, G.M., Hunisak, J.M., Turner, A.R., "The Art of Florence", Artabras, New York, 1994, p. 960] The earliest known photograph of a snowman was taken circa 1853 by Welsh photographer
Mary Dillwyn, the original of which is in the collections of the National Library of Wales.
While the origin of snowmen remains unclear, they have been used throughout history to make statements. In 1511, the city of Brussels held a snowman festival in hopes of appeasing its hungry and poor citizens. However, instead of building snowmen, the people built pornographic sculptures throughout the city.
The concept of snowmen had made its way to North America by the Schenectady Massacre of 1690. It is said that on the night of the massacre, two guards who were in charge of guarding the north gate of the settlement of Schenectady built two snowmen to guard the gates while they went to the pub.
Snowmen became more popular when the character "Frosty the Snowman" came out, which originated from a song of the same name in 1950.
In popular culture
In media
Snowmen are a popular theme for Christmas and winter decorations and also in children's media.
[Eckstein, Bob (2007) The History of the Snowman, pp27-9] One of the oldest depictions of a snowman in media is Ted Eshbaugh's Fantasies cartoon, "The Snowman," in 1932, which is also one of the first cartoons to be made in color. One of the most famous snowman characters is Frosty, the titular snowman in the popular holiday song "Frosty the Snowman" (later adapted into film and television specials), who was magically brought to life by the old silk hat used on his head. In addition to numerous related music and other media for Frosty, snowmen also feature as:
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Bouli, a France animated series about a snowman's adventures in a magical place.
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Der Schneemann, a 1943 animated short created in Germany.
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Doc McStuffins features a plush snowman named Chilly.
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The Peanuts comic strip has several strips where the characters build snowmen in the winter months.
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Jack Frost, a 1997 horror film in which a serial killer is transformed into a snowman.
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Jack Frost, a 1998 movie with Michael Keaton in which he wakes up as a snowman after a car accident.
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Oswald features a snowman named Johnny who runs an ice cream shop.
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The Snowman, British picture book (1978) by Raymond Briggs
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Tabaluga's main antagonist in his series is an evil snowman called Arktos.
[, animationmagazine.com]
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In Pokémon the Ice Type Galarian Forms of Darumaka and Darmanitan are based on the Yeti, whereas Darmanitan's Zen Mode which is Ice/Fire, is based on the Snowman.
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Calvin and Hobbes, an United States cartoon by Bill Watterson, contains many instances of Calvin building snowmen, many of which are deformed or otherwise abnormal, often used to poke fun at the art world.
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Hans Christian Andersen wrote a winter fairy story, The Snowman.
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Dennis Jürgensen's horror story "The Snowman", is about a boy traumatized by being locked in a meat freezer.
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R. L. Stine's Goosebumps story titled "Beware, the Snowman" featured a monstrous snowman.
[ISBN 9780590568883]
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The 2013 film Frozen features a living snowman named Olaf who longs to see summer. The film score includes a song about building a snowman.
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The 2021 webcomic Nixvir features snowmen in the capacity of its protagonist and antagonist, respectively. In stark contrast to the majority of media involving snowmen which are imbued with sapience and life, the webcomic deconstructs the concept, and examines what happens to snowmen when they melt: namely, that they travel to a different world when they melt. The author also establishes some rules concerning what happens: for example, they can only enter the snow world if they melt in the sun, if they are melted down by flames, they will die. Fire is depicted as their sole weakness, which they share with their rivals, the scarecrows.
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In 2022, the snowman mascot named “Snow King” was created in China from Mixue.
[ daoinsights.com]
Snowman-themed items
Snowmen can also be a theme for toys, costumes, and decorations. They have been featured on New Year
postage stamp, for example, in Russia and other post-Soviet states.
One common time for snowman-themed decorations is during the winter holiday and Christmas season, where it is celebrated.
One book on snowmen, which included instructions on working with real snow, also mentions snowman-themed sweets and confections.
playing on a
garmon, 2019 New Year stamp of Russia]]
Giant snowmen and records
In 2015, a man from the U.S. state of
Wisconsin was noted for making a large snowman 22 feet tall and with a base 12 feet wide.
The record for the world's largest snowman or snowwoman was set in 2008 in Bethel, Maine. The snowwoman stood in height, and was named Olympia in honor of Olympia Snowe, a U.S. Senator representing the state of Maine.
The previous record was a snowman built in Bethel, Maine, in February 1999. The snowman was named "Angus, King of the Mountain" in honor of the then-current governor of Maine, Angus King. It was tall and weighed over .
A large snowman known as "Snowzilla" has been built each winter in Anchorage, Alaska.
In December 2016 the smallest snowman of sorts was created in a nano-fabrication facility at University of Western Ontario.
Variations
In addition to snowmen, other things can be made from snow. Typical variations on the snowman concept involve producing other snow creatures or snow decorations.
A snow sculpture of a woman is called a snowwoman. In some Slavic countries, a variation of the snowman is often constructed called a snow grandma. This only uses two snowballs.
Yuki Cone
The Yuki Cone, named after the Japanese word for snow, involves building a small cone-shaped structure from snowballs, illuminated from the inside with a tea-light.
Other variants
Sometimes other raw material might be used to create objects that mimic the snowman concept.
Japan
In Japanese, snowmen are called "Yukidaruma" (). Possibly because the shape is related to a
Daruma doll, they usually only have two sections instead of three.
There is also a longstanding tradition in Japan of creating snow rabbits, or "Yukiusagi" ().
Unicode
|
| ☃ | U+2603 | ☃ | Snowman |
| ⛄ | U+26C4 | ⛄ | Snowman without snow |
| ⛇ | U+26C7 | ⛇ | Black snowman |
See also
Further reading
