Burning the Hom Strom

 The “L’Hom Strom” festival takes place on the first Saturday in February every year the small community of Scuol in canton Graubünden, (in Switzerland close to the borders of both Austria and Italy).  The "hom strom" is the famous "Straw Man of Scuol," a large dummy.that is set alight.

On the first Saturday in February, young men crack whips to assemble the population, and the youths of Scuol, then go from farm to farm collecting straw which has been hand-threshed and especially prepared for this purpose....

... I am so sorry, but this post has been moved to my new website, The Pagan Calendar, and can be found in its entirety here: Burning the Hom Strom