History Of The Snowman

By: Breanna Naysmith

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We are all aware of the lovely snowmen we make when it snows. Have you ever wondered who thought it was a good idea to create people out of three balls of snow? No one knows who invented the snowman. However, the first man of snow was made in medieval times. The medieval Book of Hours from 1380 AD contains the very first illustration of a snowman. There are two reasons why the snowman could have been invented. One is to resemble the joy and love that is included in building the snowman with friends and family. The second is that they were probably made by people to scare away evil winter spirits.

The typical snowman consists of three large snowballs of different sizes with some additional accoutrements for facial and other features. For example, three rocks are used as “buttons,” a carrot for a nose, two pieces of coal for eyes, two sticks for arms, some more rocks for a smile, and maybe even a scarf and top hat for some added sparkle. The world's tallest snowman was built in Bethel, Maine in 2008. Named Olympia after Maine's senator Olympia Snowe, the snowwoman towered 122 feet above the ground. It was so tall that they used skis for her eyelashes and wreaths for her eyes. On the other hand, the smallest snowman is 3 micrometres tall, and was achieved by Todd Simpson (Canada) at Western University Nanofabrication Facility, in Ontario, Canada, on December 16, 2016.