The History Of The Snowman Explained

As Atlas Obscura tells us, the first documented snowman comes a 1380 manuscript called the Book of Hours, found in the Koninkijke Bibliotheek in The Hague, Netherlands. In it, there is a somewhat disturbing illustration of a snowman being charred by fire. The snowman conforms to comical, and mocking, depictions of Jewish people at the time, featuring a floppy hat and a sad face with a big, sloping nose. The snowman is built in the typical "ball" method, stacked on top of each other. Writing off to the side substantiates its "blame the Jews" purpose, as it announces the crucifixion of Jesus. Some historians think that this was merely comedy used to deal with the 1400s' horrors of the Black Death.

Snowmen also played a similarly subversive, even politically motivated part in 1511 during the "Winter of Death," as Reader's Digest tells us. To keep people's spirits up, the government of Brussels organized a snow festival for its citizens. The disgruntled masses used the opportunity to craft a "public art installation" of 100 pornographic snowmen mocking prominent government and church officials, in an event now known as the Miracle of 1511. It helps that snow was an abundant, completely free material, and didn't require immense skill to fashion into balls. On the other hand, Michelangelo's deft, skilled hands once crafted what was called a stunningly beautiful snowman in 1484, per All That's Interesting, on commission from a nobleman named Piero the Unfortunate.