feathers wrote:Aneris wrote:Oddly enough, we have “Heiliger Nikolaus” (St. Nicolas, ~Santa Claus) too, but not like the Dutch on the eve of the 5th, but in the morning of 6th (analogue to US Christmas, that is in the morning the following day, and not in the eve).
The old bugger can't do both countries in one night, what with being more than 1700 years old and still riding your horse over the rooftops. Only to have a run-in with some 21st century hippies who claim you can't have black servants anymore. The hell you can.
And he switches servants, in the Nederlands, he's accompanied by the Zvarte Piet (perhaps Black Peter?), properly with blackface, wheras in Germany — of course, it's a dark demonic Anti-Santa of sorts, a hooded, bearded grim man called “Knecht Ruprecht” (in Northern Germany). Further south, Bavaria and Alpine a similar role is filled by the Krampus.
Here he is …
http://www.partymaterial.de/images/4101 ... 2c62b75c7a
A “Knecht” is a medieval servant doing lowly menial work, and Ruprecht is an old fashioned name that rhymes with Knecht and is perhaps akin to “Rupert”, and sounds to Germans adequately gnarly. Anyway, he represents the stick (punishment), also quite literally. Originally, children were threatened that not only would they not get presents if they weren't nice, but Knecht Ruprecht would “give them the twig/switch” (traditionally a bunch of twigs as you see in his right hand) which was originally a reference to caning, but since forever became literally getting a boring old bunch of twigs (this is called “Rute”) instead of nice presents.
By the way, I noticed discussions in the US to tell children that Santa was not real. That's interesting, because such traditions (like other religious traditions) are not treated as reality — or not that I was aware of it. I cannot recall that I ever believed Santa Claus or Knecht Ruprecht existed, and never came across where parents seriously tried to make their kids believe they were real, as all of these traditions come with a strong wink.