#69 - 10 Fun Facts About The Smurfs

80's flashback! Who else grew up with the Smurfs?

Smurf Birthday Party Invitations by RepondezSilVousPlait on Esy, $20

10 Fun Facts about The Smurfs:

1. The word “smurf” was created when the creator, Pierre Culliford (Peyo), couldn’t remember the word for salt. Instead of asking 'Passez-moi le sel', he asked 'Passez-moi le schtroumpf', and the name was born!Schtroumpf became "smurf" in English.
2. The Smurfs are Belgian. They became very popular worldwide after Hanna-Barbera featured them in the 1980s but they did not originate in the United States. 

   

   Smurfs La Schtroumpfette  French Comic from RubyLaneVintage on Etsy, $19.99

   
   
3. There are 105 different smurfs. 

   

   Vintage Lot of '80s Smurfs, Houses &Accessories from PerfectlyPoshVintage on Etsy, $150

4. Smurfette was created by Gargamel to stir up trouble in the smurf village.In the original series, Smurfette left the village to create peace but the American version has Smurfette staying and becoming a permanent character.

   

   Vintage Gargamel Figure from CeeGeesAttic on Etsy,  $6

5. The smurf cartoons have been translated into 30 different languages!

   

   Spanish Smurfs

    
6. The smurfs are “three apples tall”. 

   

   Smurf Macbook Decal from Ralleyfun on Etsy, $8.80

7.  The white hats the smurfs wear are called Phrygian hats which are worn as a symbol of liberty. 

   

   Fleece Smurf Hat by MysticMoor on Etsy, $18

8. There’s a red Phrygian hat on the seal of the United States Senate. 
   
9. When Sony Pictures filmed a Smurf movie in the village of Juzcar in Andalucia, Spain, they used around 1,000 gallons of paint to turn all the houses blue. The promised that at the end of filming, they would repaint all the houses back to their original white, but the townsfolk, in a referendum in 2011, voted to keep them blue as they had boosted tourism to the village from 300 a year to about 80,000.

   

   Juzcar in Adalucia, Spain

10. In a UNICEF anti-war advertisement, the smurf village was bombed to extinction with the message "“Don’t let war affect the lives of children.”