The Creepy History of Europe’s Christmas Folk Villains
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- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
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Christmas is the time of joy, generosity and... getting eaten?? If you were a European child at Christmastime, you had a lot to fear due to the presence of threatening folk characters that were out to get those who misbehave. What's the deal with these characters, and why did Christmas used to be seen as a time of chaos and debauchery? Come learn with me!
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Sources:
Christmas Customs and Traditions: Their History and Significance by Clement A. Miles
The Battle for Christmas by Stephen Nissenbaum
The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas by Al Ridenour
Ballad of the Mari Lwyd by Vernon Phillips Watkins
About Christmas by Nicolae Sfetcu
The Spirits of Christmas by Sylvia Shults
Frau Perchta: the Christmas Belly-Slitter, A Concise History of the Legend by Edmund Breckin
Bad Santas And Other Creepy Christmas Characters By Paul Hawkins
Also, out of all the horrific things on this list of creatures, why are the Yule lads the most disturbing to me? Genuinely became nauseous at the thought of these abominations breaking into my home with the express purpose of licking my dishware
Why is one of them sniffing my doors and another peeping into my window? That just sounds pervy as hell 😭
I hear ya!
Lol
if you clean your dishes properly, they don't have anything to lick, them they'll just steal your candles
@@annesofieclausen5823 I was imagining that they were licking my clean dishes and putting them back in my cabinet lmao
This was so interesting!
As a german, I didn’t even know about Frau Perchta. We’ve got a „Frau Holle“ here - but she isn’t really connected to Christmas. She punishes the lazy/bad and rewards the good children.
Krampus is pretty well known.
However, in our region there’s just Santa nowadays (der Weihnachtsmann) and it‘s mostly just a wholesome holiday! He‘s still said to bring cole or a rod (to smack some sense into you) if you’re naughty
i've just discovered your channel and i would just like to let u know that i'm now ur biggest fan. ur content aligns so perfectly with my interests im so happy i saw this
We wish you a merry Christmas, now bring us some figgey pudding.
This really makes me curious on other cultures christmas holidays. As soneone who grew up in a Spanish colony, christmas is all about religious(thr culture)
Yo why haven't we gotten like a fun Christmas time time story. Where some guy gets a guy from like 1700s or something. Takes him to Christmas party where he is like hella drunk, in drag, and robbing Jeff Bezos house. Just like in the old days!
i'm welsh and mari lwyd would come to our school after every new year so that we could sing welsh songs to her. then on the way out, we'd get to pet her creepy little head whilst she snaps her jaw happily. it was wholesome(?)
That sounds very endearing actually
Oh to be a horse skull snapping its jaw happily while being pet by Welsh children
Low key, that sounds precious
That's so funny! I love that character
We in Czechia have something similar to Krampus called čert (read č like ch like in cherry). He walks with Mikuláš (st. Nicolas) at the eve of 5th of December. Children recite poetry or sing a song for Mikuláš and he gives them candy and small toys. The bad children are put into the burlap sack the čert carries with him and taken to hell. I still remember the trauma of being pryed from my mother's arms by a čert when I was 2,5 years old. I have photos of the whole affair, but I don't need them to remember my hysteric cries and pleading that I will be a good child in the future. Yeah be greatful for your creep in a red suit.
EDIT: The "real" čert (human in a costume) is a nightmare inducing monster terrorising small children. The storybook čert is often either a suave huntsman seducing people left, right and center. Outsmarted by a person with a common sense , a dumbass (all three types can be seen in Hrátky s čertem) or an overworked dude that's just trying to get the meanest people in the region to hell, but said person is too smart so the čert enlists a helper in a form of a kindhearted person from the same region (S čerty nejsou žerty). The kindness is usually paid in favors - kinda like the deals with fairies only the czech fairies in floklore don't help only kill (rusalky and such). As far as I know the helpful čert is only a sanitised (disneyfied) version made for TV.
Anyone more familiar with czech folklore or filmography please feel free to correct me.
That sounds kinda similar to the Russian чёрт/chert! He kidnaps people in a burlap sack or he can jump on your shoulders if you're not looking and take control of you and ride you to death lmao no December 5th tradition tho and idk if it's Christmas or children specific cause he can do that just in general but he walks the earth on the Christmas Eve on January 6th, we have a story/movie about that called Evenings on a farm near Dikanka. I think it's on UA-cam with English subs
Krampus does that whole sack business too (or at least he does in my neck of the woods). I vividly remember Saint Nick and a couple of Krampus coming into our house when I was a small kid and me hiding under the table because I was so scares of being taken and never coming back. We really love to traumatise children in gool old mother Europe 😭
We have a similar thing although in Germany it's the 6th of December and St. Nikolaus is accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht (Servant Rupert) a creepy dude in a dark robe and with a rod he would beat children up with (originally as I grew up in the 2000s and beating children didn't fly anymore) and also take you to the dark woods or something I think I was dead afraid of that man. So sorry you got it that traumatic... Some traditions need to go/be reformed. Which did happen to Rupert as he is almost completely gone nowadays.
Isn't chort just another word for the devil?
These are so incredibly traumatic! Unfortunately, in the US, at least when I was growing up in the 80s and 90s, there were a lot of mall Santa's who took advantage of kids sitting on his lap. It's tragic.
Pre 19th and 20th century Christmas seemd like a chaotic, insane, boozy and meat stuffed time where people went a little mad from the darkness and cold, and it's left us with all these traditions and fun stories to learn about and tell! Also this was a great vid 👌
Anglo Christmas. There is no cold in the South but we still have Christmas
I think we should bring back the boozy, meat-stuffed debauchery.
Why do people say "a time where" instead of "a time when?"
Sounds like a normal party at my in-laws 😅
@@throgwarhammer7162 I don't know for sure but it seems like it could be a dialect thing
Many of us already associate Christmas with horror. They’re called relatives.
The monster at Christmas is my grandmother. But it's more mental than physical damage.
I would rather battle Krampus than deal with my family every year :/
Great video! Nice channel! I will be following.
🤣😂
No joke, this is why I dread the holiday season far more than any other.
very excited to see my girl mari lwyd being appreciated in all her glory. the area i'm from doesn't really do mari lwyd anymore but i still do love how this terrifying bone lady is a widely celebrated part of welsh heritage
dyn ni'n caru mari lwyd
My family still does the yule cat thing. We make sure everyone gets some sort of clothing on Christmas eve (usually pajamas) so we don't get eaten by a cat
Your comment made me realize it’s fully possible that my mother (whose of mixed nordic/germanic heritage)’s tendency to get me pajamas for Christmas Eve could stem from some version of the tradition that was eventually lost bc like, American Immigration sucks.
Same here Mycena Dark. My mother’s parents were from Southern Germany (my father’s from Kent, England). In our family presents were opened on Christmas morning, but naturally we children would always beg to open “just one” every Christmas Eve. My parents would steadfastly refuse until shortly before bedtime, when we were allowed to open our “just one” present. These presents were ALWAYS new pajamas or nightgowns!
We have a tradition of getting pajamas on Christmas Eve and I had no idea what the traditional roots were
Me too amazing
My mom discovered the Yule Cat story a few years ago and decided we MUST add it to our Christmas traditions. The clothing of choice to give is socks, preferably whimsical, funky, or handmade.
I grew up with Knecht Ruprecht who accompanies either St. Nicolas on the 6th or the Weihnachtsmann (who's is kinda santa but not, he basically derived from St. Nick but is also is not necessarily him)or the Christkind (which is a baby but not necessarily Jesus) who both bring presents on the 24th depending on religious and family traditions. Knecht Ruprecht functions similar to Krampus and is more known in northern and central Germany. He looks fairly human and has birch twigs with him with which he hits children if they are naughty. Apparently his origins are connected to similar ones as Frau Perchta.
I know Knecht Ruprecht as the person, who brings coal to naughty children, which he carrys in a basket on his back. He appears together with the Christkind or Weihnachtsmann or sometimes St. Nicolas and essentially acts according to their directions.
He was said to be black in apearence, because he was covered in the coal dust. I live in a region that had exessive coal mining operations, so that part is probably inspired by coal miners being blackened after their shift.
It was said that, when it was uncertain whether a child would get presents or coal, he would come along with the respective gift giver to enable a last minute decision. So when a child received presents, but there was also coal residue to be found near or on them, this was a sign that the decision between naughty and nice was a close call.
What about the intestines? I want to know what Frau Perchta does with them! :)
Was looking for a comment like yours! I'm from southern Germany and also grew up with Knecht Ruprecht as the companion of the Nikolaus. Where I live he has a sack full of coal and naughty kids get thrown in there and punished by him. Although most of the times Knecht Ruprecht is really sweet and will give walnuts and tangerines to the kids that are brave enough to walk up to him :D
I'm from bawü and I also always knew knecht ruprecht as the guy who beats up the naughty children
Same here although I grew up in Switzerland
There is nothing quite like being hit with a switch or dragged off into a dark tractor trailer that has been converted into a cave by drunk teenage volunteer figherfighters in Krampus costumes. Gotta love having been raised in a tiny austrian village ahaha.
Fun fact: there is also a different type of Christmas demon called Perchten. They look significantly more horrifying, but they also put on a better show, usually with some pyrotechnics
I miss them so much… they are genuinely so much fun… the last time I was at a Perchtenlauf was in 2018
ouh perchten. I was so scared of the the first time i saw them xD i am in a small scholl i tyrol and same of our teachers are disguised like that and are in the show, so the nornally have a show in the lunch break. Our small villages had 5 different groups in 2020 xD
Just described my evening, and we love it
I would have an unbelievable panic attack if some drunk dudes attacked me and dragged me into a trailer. How often does that end in sexual assault.
I guess it's down to cultural differences. I don't think you could do this kind of thing safely in the US.
@@bananawitchcrafti think it has to do with small towns and the people being in masks (not recognisable) or much distinctive from others. i‘ve heard some stories from a teacher of mine lol. but in modern day these things are i (i highly believe) not as common. the krampus or perchte may make fun off or even pull your hair slightly, but its much safer and more constricted now, at least to my own and my friends‘ experience. I was always very overwhelmed at these things so def not a positive childhood experience! but interesting folktale kind off. Like go off
As a Welshman, I'm really happy Mari Llwyd was mentioned. Although she's not a tradition from where I was raised, we did do a mari lwyd rap battle in a school I attended which was closer to that area of tradition, (and yes it is a rap battle) and it was terrifying and fun. I was actually the one who effed up enough for her to come in, but it was cool cause she came in and terrorized all the kids and everyone was screaming and then we all got chocolate coins. The puppeteers stayed and chatted for a while with the teachers with a mug of tea (but given they were demanding beer, I suspect it was more than tea) and then they all wandered off. A cool time for sure.
What about Mare Llwyd hahaha I'm sorry
@@nicanornunez9787 I don't understand your question
@@I1like1wood1ash Mare is a term for a female horse. It was a play on words.
I was weirdly not expecting to see Père Fouettard on the list (mostly because here in Switzerland St Nicolas day and Christmas are two different holidays so I don't immediately associate him or Père Fouettard with Christmas (especially because in some cities (like Fribourg) St Nicolas day IS a much bigger celebration than Christmas itself)). Funnily enough here we also have the story of the resurrected boys, which makes the fact that St Nicolas is both the patron saint of children and of sausage makers/pork butchers REALLY… Interesting let's say.
Anyway weird facts aside, it was a super interesting video, even for someone who's really familiar with weird European folk tales ♡ You're really spoiling us with all this content !
J'avais aucune idée que père fouettard était connu en dehors de la France
We have a kinda-Krampus here in Finland, he's called Nuuttipukki. He comes on January 13th to take Christmas away and usually raids people's houses for leftovers of Christmas foods and drinks. I really recommend to read about him!
My family does Nikolaus (Saint Nicolas) house visits on the 6th of december. The Krampus that come along are always very kind to the children (sometimes they don't go inside when the kids are too scared). "Krampus runs" on the other hand are not so peacefull. They usually have an ambulance ready because there are cases broken bones almost every time.
I'm excited that you talked about how Christmas used to be celebrated more like Halloween. I'm from a Pennsylvanian German area, and when my grandmother was young, they used to go belsnickeling, which is basically a cross between Christmas caroling and trick-or-treating. People would dress up in creepy costumes and go door-to-door caroling and asking for treats. People at the house they visited would have to guess who of their neighbors was in each costume. I've always wanted to try belsnickeling, but nobody knows about it anymore, so it wouldn't work. :(
YES I've heard of that, it's a lot like Mari Lwyd if I remember correctly
My grandmother used to talk about people going bellsnickeling when she was a child and how scared she was when they would come to her house.
Such a tradition was known as mummering in fishing villages in Nova Scotia. The tradition slowly died out in the mid 1900s, but I understand that it continued on in Newfoundland much longer.
There's something similar in Scandinavia called julebukk (Christmas goat). Children usually dress up as nisser and go from door to door singing Christmas songs for candy. It's usually done somewhere between Christmas eve and New years eve
I'm sorry but bellsnickeling cracks me up. I can just hear it with the accent. Love our neighbours.
Frau Perchta" Obviously she makes sausages out of all those intestines! Who doesn't see a charcuterie board at every holiday party? Hickory Farms remembers.
Thank you- why was this a question. Clearly sausages
I was born on Krampus day and my told me that my uncle was dressed up for a Perchtenlauf (it's an event where a bunch of men and boys dress up as Perchten (they're similiar to Krampus) with bells and fire and just go wild) that day and she just ran out to the street to all of them shouting "You're an uncle!" at him while he was in full costume
Perchten sounds like it may be related to Frau Perchta, the straw stuffing intestine collecter!
It happened when I was little that I got so scared of the yule cat eating my dad that I cried until he was given socks 🤦 after that I'm pretty sure my mom made sure that everyone got clothes until I grew out of believing in the yule cat.
You saying "Dope! Happy birthday little man!" was so funny!
This line slayed me 🤣
"More pancake offerings for mythical creatures, now!"
sounds an awful lot like what a mythical creature would say...
Okay tell me why when you said "tag yourself" about the Yule Lads I, without hesitation, settled on Door-Sniffer.
Ok I’m super late on this but what about la befana? My italian grandmother would always tell me how they waited for her at Christmas time when she was a child. She’s basically a sassy witch who will give you mean presents if you’re not good, but nice things if you behaved well that year. And usually kids leave little presents for her as well, mostly food. I always loved this story!
Also where I live we celebrate St Nicolas on december 6th, not Christmas day but it’s still a "christmassy" celebration because the whole Christmas period starts on december 1st and ends on january 6th
Can I just say that I love this channels vibe? It has such an amazing atmosphere and aesthetic
PS: Is that a Jiji plushie in the background? :D
I live in Bavaria but went to Austria each winter for a few weeks, usually after Christmas. But once, my family went earlier, so I witnessed a Nikolaustag there. Mind you, our holiday home was in a tiny village deep in the alps, mountains everywhere, snow, tall dark trees - I have never seen a Perchtenlauf so scary. And the Bavarian ones aren’t harmless either. They had insanely well made costumes, jumped over fire, shouted until it echoed in the mountains, and they were so drunk they had no proper control of what they were doing anymore. My family went home covered in bruises.
I love them… the costumes are so fascinating… so sad that there aren’t any bc of the pandemic but safety obviously goes first
Christmas fashion is interesting.
The version of the Krampus I grew up with, naughty (or more outright evil) children were stuffed into his burlap sack, and he would go on and beat the bag indiscriminately. This all happens on the evening of 6th of December, and the St. Nick that Krampus travels with has nothing to with Santa Clause (other than having been forced to lend his name). Oh, and he is also undead.
Children usually put a single shoe outside the front door, and St. Nick would leave treats (chocolate, nuts, oranges) and may be a toy and a few quid.
thes ame here!
You guys also do the shoe! Didn't know that. We in the Netherlands also put out a shoe, usually near the "fireplace"(we didn't have that so me and my brother would just put it next to the radiator because children logic) and usually you also get chocolates(we have letters from chocolate, it's great) or an orange: _appeltjes van Oranje_ as sung in a song you had to sing before going to bed. I still remember all the songs from the top of my head. We also do coins, but usually not real money but chocolate coins.
In south east Germany children put one of their shoes out the front door / the apartment door.
So I’m German and I’m our household it’s a tradition to always put some baked goods under the Christmas tree for Frau Perchta, even though I’ve only heard the story once and we kind of ignore the rest. But biscuits under the tree are a must.
I am an Austrian from a region that does Krampus (it is complicated) and as a kid I figured out that the one to be scared of is not Krampus, but St. Nicolas himself because he is the one with the book of all child sins who tells the Krampus which children are to be stuffed into a bag and beaten with sticks.
Great video!
honestly I got so excited when you mentioned Mari Lwyd I'm welsh and the tradition seems to have died down where I live but i often see it at storytelling festivals and in bigger welsh towns, you can look online for the song and translation but if i remember correctly from being told about it when I was younger it sings about asking to be let into the neighbours house for a pint of beer and food. Can't wait to see if Mari Lwyd pops up around my village this year
My grandmother remembered the Yule Goat, a villager dressed in a goat mask and several ragged old fur coats on top of each other, to make him look bulkier, visiting all the houses to chase the screaming children around the house with birch stick and threatening punishment; then saying Oh no just joking, and digging his pockets for some small candy for them instead. My grandmother remembered this fondly though, as an exciting thing like I guess Halloween would be now. Now in Finland we just get a man dressed as jolly old Santa Claus, handing gifts; the name is still the same though and he is called joulupukki still. (Finland)
Idk why but "dope, happy birthday little man" really took me out. 10/10 video in all regards
"I like the ambiance". I laughed so hard at this, that was so cute. :'D Btw I'm from Hungary and we also have krampuses, they accompany the Mikulás (Saint Nicholas/Santa) on the 6th of December and while Santa gives kids chocolate and candies and oranges, krampuses joke around and threaten everyone with brooms or "virgács", a small broom-like thing made of branches from a bush or willow.
"Looking at you, *Netherlands*."
My Dutch partner: "We deserved that."
As a Dutch person myself: not proud either🫣
I’m about to experience my 3rd Christmas here and Zwarte Piet was so fucking jarring, and idk that I’ll ever get used to it lmao
Only became weird when people made it weird
@@kimashitawa8113 it is genuinely something that needs to be addressed but people treat it like it's the biggest problem in the world and that just pisses me off. Growing up there were many times there wasn't really food in the house and not only is that about 15-20 years later still a problem for many(i'm doing much better luckily), it's getting worse with more and more children having to go to school or come home from school without proper food or food at all.
_In the Netherlands._
That's insanity.
But i guess "Kinderfeest" is more important.
Many of the black people in my neighborhood couldn't give a f about Zwarte Piet either. Most of them didn't made the connection, and a great many that where older and that did notice the racism had wayyyy bigger issues to deal with(like being basically harassed by Belastingdienst for example).
I have noticed the whole discussion is basically the domain of white people that have too much time because they are out of a job and black people that didn't grew up in such neighborhood and had it good. Good for them, but Zwarte Piet is not the biggest issue for black people, not by a long shot. I don't really respect those people because they say they stand up for people but what they talk about and what they choose to fight against don't really makes lives better for people from for example my old neighborhood. It's like saying you are fighting climate change and then start a jihad against plastic straws. It's part of the issue, but not what the focus should be on.
The rest of the country either didn't care or was just like ok remove earrings, lips and curls and lets move on.
@@rubenskiiiusually, discrimination and prejudice fuels inequalities that lead to the bigger problems you mention and it’s a lot easier to change a part of a holiday tradition than to raise a good chunk of a nation out of poverty and while the latter is more important, people can be passionate about addressing both without taking focus off of the big issue. Plus, a lot of apathy towards the big issues in society comes from the continuation of stereotypes and lack of representation that allows people to find reasons to “justify” why others are actually “deserving” of their place in society, it happens way too often
Père Fouettard actually translates to Father Whipper and he specifically punishes naughty children by giving their parents a whip to beat them with! There's also an iconic french song about Père Fouettard's son and Father Christmas' daughter falling in love so that's sort of weird.
The fact that Père Fouettard has a child in the first place… not a fan of that hahaha
Sitting here laughing my ass off trying to picture explaining to your therapist that you were once salted meat
In Romania we have something extremely similar to Mari Lwyd, but instead of a horse skull we use a goat one! Lately people have been using wood to shape the goat’s head (since getting an actual skull can be kinda suspicious nowadays I guess), and the goat, adorned just like Mari Lwyd, travels door to door as a carolling tradition. The goat is accompanied by other carollers as well, and the whole group is usually mischievous, but it’s all in good fun. They receive food and drinks and even money after singing a traditional song and performing a traditional dance, and after that they move on to the next house :)
❤❤❤❤ yes, our Capra is so similar to Mari Lwyd. I also read a comment above according to which they have a similar goat in in Finland, which is intriguing 👀
I remember getting visits from Nick and Knecht Ruprecht when I was a child. Now, I don't know how I came to the conclusion but I was convinced that the two men playing them where like employees of the state (if that's the right word for Beamte) and every like town or something had their own pair of them that do nothing all year but write down the good and bad deeds of the kids in their area and on st.nicks day they go around town and give them either chocolate or a piece of coal. If you get a piece of chocolate you're good but if you get a piece of coal (and again, I don't know how and why my child brain came to the conclusion) Knecht Ruprecht was legally allowed to beat you to death with his Rute (don't know the english word) and your parents couldn't interfere. As I'd never gotten a piece of coal (as I was still alive) but was a rather mischievous child I also came to the conclusion that Knecht Ruprecht was the lazy one of the two and didn't take his job all that seriously and just started noting down the bad like two days before, which led to my child self being overly nice on December 5th and 6th because I'd forgotten all year about it and then panicked when I remembered. It also made me wanna be a state employed Knecht Ruprecht in the future because I could do nothing all year and then work for like 3/4 days. In my mind my 1 1/2 year older sister would take the job of Saint Nick, as she always was more of a main-character, nice and diligent type of person.
Turns out, the two guys were just some middle aged regulars at the bar my mum worked night shifts at and they didn't have anything better to do that day because they didn't have children of their own lol good times
In Denmark we have nisser. They're like little gnomes or elves, that live on the attic and protect your house/farm. In the past when folklore was more prominent, they were about all year round, and if they felt you disrespected them or their house, they'd play pranks to punish you, like making your milk spoil or chew holes in all your family's socks, and the only way to appease them is to leave a bowl of risengrød with cinnamon sugar and butter, which I believe is rice pudding in english, in the attic for them as an apology. New of days, they mostly sleep all year till December, where they might pull a prank or two. they still appreciate a bowl of risengrød or a few christmas sweets with a glass of milk or beer, though.
We do a Krampus thing at my highschool where on Krampusnacht, Saint Nicholas Day, or the Friday before winter break the theater teacher runs through the halls dressed as Krampus and throwing informational leaflets about winter holiday folktales, before grabbing one of the theater students (usually me) and running out the front door with them. He then buys the theater class hot chocolate as a treat for being "good children"
just used what you said on a birthday card i wrote “it is believed in greek christmas mythos that children born too close to christmas gain an impish gene known as kalikantzaroi. these days we refer to it as “sagittarius”
thank you that was it i thought you would laugh at it
In Russia we still dress up and trick or treat and sing carols called kalyadki/калядки on Christmas(January 7th since it's orthodox Christianity), it's called kalyada/каляда and we even have books and Soviet movies about those traditions that I really like(The night before Christmas/Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka, I think it's available on UA-cam with English subs), the evil creatures like the devil and witches and stuff are supposed to be walking the earth on the Christmas Eve. The holiday here is more religious and the whole Santa (Ded Moroz/Grandpa Frost) thing and your typical Christmas traditions happen on the New Years, especially influenced by the Soviet supposed secularism
I don´t know if you already did but if you ever feel like more creepy german childreenstorys, i recomand taking a look at "struwwelpeter" its a german childreens book about behaving from 1844. Its really creepy and still gets gifted to childreen in germany. I grew up with a copy and it definitly gave me nightmares.
The story about a scissor man cutting of fingers of children that suck their thumb scared me for life tbh
@@NikELbErGErBergel for me it was the playing with a lighter and the not eating the soup one that haunt me to this day
Also max & Moritz belongs in that category. Definitely recommend this video idea!
omg memory unlocked
isn't there a story in there where boys were shredded and fed to ducks?
Yassss, kallikantzaroi! I grew up with those lads. I remember my grandparents telling me how they lived in the bowels of the Earth the rest of the year, trying to cut down the tree of life, but it would grow back when they could come out to cause mischief during Christmas (Greek folklore version). It didn't occur to me back then to ask why did they come up at all, like if they just continued cutting without coming up for the year, surely they could cut the tree and then they could cause mischief forever??? (Eh, folklore doesn't always make sense)
Kaz, as always, your video was amusing, informative and partially horrifying. (Well, to be honest, your videos are not always horrifying - even partially. Usually eye opening, but seldom horrifying.) My mother’s grandparents immigrated to the US from Southern Germany. As children the only present we were permitted to open on Christmas Eve was always new pajamas or nightgowns. Now I know why, even if my mother never did!
in Italy we have the Befana, an old witch/crone figure that appears on Jan 6th to bring you candy/fruit or coal in your stockings (the Befana’s socks literally, le calze della Befana). Stockings are not put up until after the 25th because they are her thing. I’ve never heard she does anything worse than give you coal or rocks, though. Some people say she is Babbo Natale’s wife (yes, we call santa Daddy Christmas).
I wish you could've explored more hungarian/polish/Russian/romanian traditions as well 😢
But I enjoyed the video none the less xx
I was raised with a half-joking and extremely American take on the Christmas villain. My dad told me that if I wasn’t good _after_ I received my presents, then “Rodney the Repo Reindeer” would take the presents back.
I still have a Krampus Trauma. As soon as the christmas season starts and I hear a cowbell (thats what he wears around the neck) I basically fear for my life. In Austria we also have a figure called Percht, probably related to Frau Perchta, I guess. He is even worse than Krampus and comes without the Nikolaus. Some people enjoy to go to Perchten events, get hit with chains or whips and get looked up in cages. Ah, my home...
This is wild to me but it just makes me want to read about more Austrian folklore. I live in the States and Krampus has really only come into the mainstream knowledge within the last few years. (Yes I'm sure there are tons of people who knew about it before, but they released a Krampus movie in 2015 and I think most Americans were unaware before then). Maybe because Halloween is only a couple months before Christmas and is so popular here, the Krampus and Frau Perchta/Percht traditions didn't become a thing. Here's hoping you survive Krampus season :)
You should do a video on the Mexican Christmas equivalent that takes place in January 6 know as the day of the los Reyes Magos (the 3 Wizard Kings). While in Mexico we celebrate the american Christmas, which was brought during the Porfiriato (when the Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz was in power) as he brought many foreign cultural things to Mexico. So, since then we have celebrated Christmas like the Americans. But before that (and we still are) we have celebrated El día de los reyes magos which is basically Christmas for us, so Mexico has two cool Christmas. Funnily enough, in the 30's, President Pascual Ortiz Rubio, tried to kick out Santa Claus and instead put the old Aztec god Quetzalcoatl as the new Santa Claus, but it failed miserably, so Christmas with Quetzalcoatl was only celebrated for one year, and next year and since, Santa is the one visiting on Christmas.
P.S. Love your videos! They're very interesting and I learn new stuff from them. They're well made and are very entertaining! Keep it going!
Oh that’s fascinating! I’ll have to look into it more. I know many European countries celebrate 3 Kings Day in January so I wonder if it’s the same holiday. Would be cool to know how the traditions may differ between locations ☺️ thanks for sharing!
@@KazRowe Perhaps it is. If my memory serves right, the day of the Reyes Magos was brought by the Spaniards, thus whey Mexico has it, but I think you may be right and perhaps it's similar to the European ones. Though to what degree? I haven't the slightest idea hahaha
Especially since in Mexico, we didn't fully adopt the Spaniard culture fully or for the most part, but we smeared lots of our old traditions to everything we could. So, it may be a little different from the Europeans. Though I've never heard the holiday anywhere else but in Mexico. So, who knows!
And thanks for the awesome informative cool videos!
@@ARVETDEG In Spain, January 6. is the day that children receive their christmas presents and as far as I know it's the only country in Europe that celebrates Christmas on that day (Portugal maybe). In other European countries it is much less celebrated, but in some countries, on that day people eat a traditional cake made out of almonds and frangipane called "Galette des Rois" (at least in Luxembourg and France, some parts of Belgium, Switzerland and Canada/Québec too I believe) and the cake is usually accompanied by a golden crown made out of cardboard (when bought in a grocery store/bakery). Inside the cake a little figurine made out porcelain is hidden (some people collect these, traditionally before the figurines it used to be a bean) whoever finds the figurine/bean in their slice of the cake gets to be king for the day and wear the crown. Hope this helps a little!
@@Alex-km9uw Oh, I see. Thanks! Yeah, it sure helped! So, it confirms pretty much what o said. Spain took their holidays to Mexico, and then we put our Mexican spin on their traditions to make them more our own. And yeah, us in January the 6th, we eat la rosca de reyes (beagle of kings would be the closest translation for this delicious sugary bread) with hot chocolate, where we put inside it many little white baby Jesus figurines of plastic inside the rosca de reyes, and in the past it used to be of porcelain or ceramic, and whoever gets one baby Jesus in their slice, they have to invite the tamales and atole on February the 2nd for the holiday of el día de la Candelaria.
@@KazRowe In Italy, like in many other places in Europe, the 6th of January is known as the Epiphany, with the event celebrated being the same as in Mexico (the Magi visiting baby Jesus and bringing him gifts). Weirdly enough, the magical creature associated to it is an old, ugly witch with tattered clothes called the Befana. She flies on her witch-certifying broom the night of the 5th to bring sweets and other nice gifts to good kids and coal to bad ones. The term befana is also used in colloquial Italian to convey the idea of an "old ugly lady".
in russia, most people celebrate New Year which has all the traditions of the western christmas and christmas is only celebrated by religious people on the 7th of January. personally, i really like the fact that “the biggest holiday of the year” is secular.
we have Grandad Frost (Ded Moroz) and accompanying him is his granddaughter Snow Maiden (Snegurochka). In my family, I was told that Ded Moroz gives gifts to kids who have nobody else to give them gifts. And it kinda checked out - you’d see news reports of Ded Moroz and Snegurochka going to children’s hospitals and orphanages in the weeks leading up to New Year. Snegurochka comes from (lots of different versions of) folklore about a teenage girl who was left to freeze to death in the forest by her family (usually a step-mother). She’ll now usually those tales end with Ded Moroz finding her, the girl being nice, kind and polite and going home with lots of money and food but i guess the grim version is that he finds her frozen to death and adopts her?
Now that i think about it, i really want to look into this whole thing but sadly a LOT of information is lost due to constant “christening” of russia and burning all the books and killing a whole lot of people. we literally have whole eras worth of records gone because of “the christening of russia” and i hate it so much. i actually still can’t get over it 😭
Great video, Kaz! I’ve just noticed that i’m not subscribed :o I honestly thought i was??? anyway, Merry Yule to you and hope to learn even more amazing stuff from your videos in the coming year! 💗
Ok but are y'all long eaters, lewd gamers, or rude revelers? I myself am a mad mirth masker.
(Just the thing to put me in the Xmas spirit,, thank you ! 💖)
Long eater for sure.
Also, when you shared about the “Jul lads”, I immediately thought of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”!
Put the lewd gaming and arson back in Christmas
Evolving tranditions are strange to think of and I wish we still practiced a lot of them because they seem really fun (okay maybe a little horrifying too) Why have elf on the shelf when we could just have skeleton horses😭
I have an objection, you are mixing protestantism and catholicism. You are talking of the USA protestant puritans and their weird ideas and then switch to the Church, presumably the Catholic one. These are 2 different religions with different histories, beliefs and traditions. I am latin american and the festivities you name still exist, in carnaval. Protestant ideas were irrelevant and in fact heresy for most Christians.
Carnevale is a big thing in Italy too
Back in high school my friends and I played "The Witch Is Dead," a short TTRPG where a bunch of familiars have to revive their dead witch or something. We threw in a little twist and looked up cryptids to play as instead, and one of my friends played as the yule lad, Door Slammer. At some point he cloned himself a bunch or something and all his clones slammed doors at the same time and caused a massive shock wave.
Honestly Gryla's family is my favorite because the narrative possibilities are endless. The lads can be children's story Grinch-type villains, Gryla and her cat can function as straight up gruesome horror and all of them together could work as a sitcom family.
"I like the ambiance" *.✧🕯️.｡*♡
My stepmom’s family is Pennsylvania-Dutch. Every year she read my younger brother the Pennsylvania-Dutch Night before Christmas featuring Belschnickel (I think that’s how it’s spelled). Only this year we’re they paying enough attention to figure out what was going on and their reactions were priceless.
Heya i am Dutch, i believe Belschnickel is German. I don't know what it is but we Dutchies always use it as like this funny word the Germans say. Like with a strong accent saying "Jawohl Herr Belschnickel". It's stupid but it's like the highest level of humor here, making fun of your neigbours. They do it to with us. But obviously our jokes are better. ;)
Every country in Europe can't function without making fun of the neighboring countries, we would be lost without it.
Omg I'm laughing so much at "dope happy birthday little man"
growing up my family had a hand-painted wooden brounie (pronounced “brownie”) we’d put on our christmas tree.
A brounie is a house elf found in Irish and Scottish folklore. They cause mischief throughout your home if you don’t leave milk out at night for them. I was told as a child that they’d take me away if I was bad around christmas time.
In older Danish folklore the goblins living on farms do that as well at Christmastime if the farmers don't leave out food and drink for them!
I have a Dutch grandmother, and when I was little she told me that if i was bad, Sinterklaus would take all of our desserts and sweets and replace them with coal, I have no idea if this was actually a tradition in the neatherlands or if she made it up to scare me [and it absolutely did], but i wanted to share the story.
Heya i am Dutch, yes it was.
Sinterklaas would give you coal or salt, and if you where really bad Piet would give you a beating with a bundle of sticks called a Roe. If you where really, really naughty you could be taken away in a jute bag, to Spain. What would happen there with you was always kept vague on purpose...
Nowadays all that doom and gloom is gone, beating children with sticks is seen as straight up child abuse so all of that went away but seeing it's your Grandma it's prefectly accurate.
The Yule cat! Huzzah! A joyous Yule to you! Hope you get new clothes!
krampuslauf is pretty funny though, even though i have had to hide in a bush a few times as a child because when they are very drunk they can be genuine terrifying….. but still pretty fun tho
6:39 Catch me participating in 'lewd gaming' this Christmas
Loving the og aggressive carol energy because here in Puerto Rico we have ‘parrandas’ (our own chaotic version of caroling) and the traditional way to start it is by yelling “ASALTO” (which translates into “ROBBERY”) before launching into the first song which talks about how we all came from very far away to sing to you and if you don’t get up from your bed we’ll stay out here singing all night 😂
Not only in Austria and Germany but also in Czech Republic and Slovakia! Most of your postcards with Krampus are Czech post cards :)
in romania Saint Nicholas still brings small gifts to kids on the 5th of december. Toys, clothes and sweets for good children and a stick(?) for the naughty kids so that their parents can use it to beat them with. You have to clean your shoes and leave them outside the door.
In Italy on the 6th on January kids get a visit from a witch called the Befana who brings candy and chocolate to good kids and coal to bad ones
Your aesthetic is honestly so pleasing in every video. I love it! ✨
I’ve never heard of fäulein Prechta, but I’ve heard about the „gutting Someone then filling up the inside with pebbles“ in a different context. My grandma used to tell me that childrens tale „der böse Wolf und die sieben Geißlein“ (the evil Wolfe and the seven little goats)
In which the evil Wolfe ate the seven little goats (because they just wouldn’t listen to the elder of course) the good huntsman would catch the Wolfe, cut him open, the goats were somehow still alive and happy to be freed, then putting pebbles in the wolfes guts, sowing him shut and throwing him into a well where he drowned. Aaah the heartwarming German folktales.
having grown up in northern Germany we had Knecht Ruprecht instead of the Krampus and on the eve of December 5th, we had to clean our shoes and put them outside and then on st.Nikolaus day (December 6th) there would be little gifts (mostly chocolate) in our shoes
Here in Norway you have to leave some porrage out for the julenisser (small leprechauns) otherwise they will pull small pranks like sour the cows milk or make your keys go missing 😅 We also give out gifts in the evening of the 24th instead of the morning of the 25th.
In the Netherlands Sinterklaas’s assistant Black Pete, would carry bad children off in a burlap sack or give them a «roe» for a gift instead of sweets (a «roe» is a bunch of twigs usually used to «discipline» bad children ) 🤔 😅
Sinterklaas gives out gifts to children on his birthday, 5th dec. So most people celebrate with gifts on the 5th and not on christmas. There is no Santa 😅 Only when children are too old to «believe» in Sinterklaas do people stop celebrating on the 5th. Instead they celebrate now with gifts on the 25th, usually in the form of a «secret Santa» game 🤷♀️☺️
Perchta sounds like the Sandman! I grew up in the midwest USA and only heard of "sandman as a magical nice man who brings you dreams" as an adult. I learned of him as someone who comes to you when you're sleeping, cuts you open, fills you with sand, and sews you back up. There was a game with it kind of like "light as a feather, stiff as a board" with chanting and light tickling.
where I live we don't celebrate christmas in the way that children think he's real. Here kids believe that 'sinterklaas' or saint nicolas excists and he always comes on the 6th of december. he isn't evil in any way but he does have some helpers like santa has elfs. these helpers are dark skinned from 'climbing trough the chimney' and they have short curly hair and they wear earing. it's really racist and there have been debates about it and now they can only wear smudges of dirt on their face wich i still think doesn't solve the problem. but yeah we dont scare children with scary stories here :)
Yeah I remember reading about Père Fouettard as a kid and... the dead kids story definitely was traumatizing. My parents didn't raise us with that character but my more Catholic cousins did, Père Fouettard would come after Christmas to steal away presents if the kids were naughty hahah. Also of note is that the name itself sounds like someone who will whip you (fouet = whip)
Dope, happy birthday little man 😭😭 I’m dead!!!! That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day 🤣
I have been wanting to learn how Christmas was actually celebrated in its pagan form and what parts of modern Christmas are from that since I first heard that Christmas is a co-opted pagan holiday, so thank you for putting all your sources in the description so that I can read them and finally find out in the detail I want. (Even just the description at the beginning of the video was more than I knew, and fascinating.)
Suprised you didnt mention the christmas pickle. You shared a very similar story. It's a medieval tale of two Spanish boys traveling home from a boarding school for the holidays. When they stopped at an inn for the night, the evil innkeeper, killed the boys and put them in a pickle barrel. That evening, St. Nicholas stopped at the same inn, and found the boys in the barrel and miraculously bought them back to life!
Omg😶
@@lucamara6424 There is also a piece of St Nicholas in a PA church.
My dad worked as a doorman for a rich neighborhood in the city most of his life. During Christmas, the residents at the building would give all the staff tips. This could amount to a months pay in most cases. The staff looked forward to it as an extra pay day and bad mouthed lousy tips and straight up joked on no tip givers. I remember the look on my dads face to open an envelope only to see a measly $5. I found it funny that medieval peasants felt the same way when they went to collect their dues from the local lord during Christmas.
Your mention of the boozy chaos of Christmas made me realise that tonight, or tonight just gone, is Black Eye Friday and I don’t know about it 100% but it is a widely observed drinking tradition in the UK
This video is so cool. Where I'm from (South Germany, BW) Krampus is called Knecht Rubrecht and we only ever learned about him beating you with his route. And I distinctly remember one year in kindergarten when one of the teachers dressed up as St Nikolaus and the other as Knecht Rubrecht. She just looked like a man with a dark coat and a big hat and that's what I always imagined him as. But these drawings of Krampus are way creepier. The costumes and the tradition of "stealing" people or beating them up reminds me of the witches at carnival with their wooden masks and putting people onto carriages.
I definitely remember wearing costumes as part of Christmas growing up, most years it was a shepherd or a sheep and occasionally an angel. My father's family is German so we would celebrate on the 24th and you always got oranges and chocolate. I would bake Stollen (a yeast bread with fruit and nuts) but some years I made Buccelatti (a fig and nut filled cookie) or Scones because I didn't have enough time bake bread. I'm Silsenian-Saxony German so Stollen is a big part of Christmas. Didn't really know about Krampus or Frau Petcha until I got older. Dresden and Nuremburg have a long running rivalry to being the biggest Christmas town. Unfortunately, most Americans know neither of those towns primarily as Christmas towns.
I always really appreciate that you give a warning for ciscentric language in your videos. As someone who is cis but has siblings and close friends who are genderqueer, its reassuring to know that there are people out there who are mindful of triggering dysphoria!
My oma (grandma) was from Austria and she told me a story from her childhood where she uncle dressed up as Krampus and came to her family's house and picked up her youngest sister and put her in a basket he had on his back. He then began leaving their village, walking all the way up a hill before he finally set the basket down and let my oma's sister go, she was crying so much and she ran home hhaha
I love how spooky season has always kind of bled into Christmas season and then the Nightmare Before Christmas just popularized it 🤣
What does Germany do with all the intestines taken by Perchta ? Have you ever heard how sausages are made ? =D Perchta is one of my favourite old spirits, she has so many faces and in some legends she joins the tales of Frau Holle (the Snow Woman), in which I also see many ties to the Russian Ded Moroz and Snegurochka.
Basically in many European regions the darkest nights of the year were the realm of demons (the Wild Hunt of the Germanic pagans notably) and that's why chaos reigned. Here in Sweden it was also a lot of feasting and mischief until it got tamed down through the centuries. Nowadays the best that remains is a pagan troll-mother (Lussi) tamed into an Italian Christian saint (Lucia) and just us daring to be our best goat-worshipping selves (yay).
PS. "unalived them" ... UNALIVED THEM ??? XD
Cypriot here:The pancakes are called "ksero-ti-ana" ,which it means "crusty deep fried" is deep fried yeasted dough served with sugar or honey or syrup or carob syrup. Traditionally, we make them for the Jesus's Epiphany day on the 6 of January and toss some over the roof to feed the Kalakantzaroi to leave.
I'm from West Germany. We have knecht ruprecht who is a man (maybe) in a cloak and he's totally mean and scary and accompanies either Saint nick (nikolaus) or the christkind (Christ child(?) Who is an angel like women btw, idk how that cane to be) and he has a sack he will put naughty children in and beat with a club and/or thin tree branch he will whip naughty children with. I don't know his origin though.
Skeleton horse! 😍 I love it and want her to make a wider come-back.
In Finland and Karelia the Nuuttipukki and Kekri traditions respectively saw young men dressing up in reversed fur coats and goat masks with horns.
They would go out giving presents and scaring children (often while drunk).
They weren't thought to be punishing the kids and there weren't any "scary stories", they just looked spooky and often tried to scare the kids.
Like a more neutral spooky christmas character.
They're also the distant origin for why Finnish people still call Santa "Joulupukki" or "Yule Goat" to this day. Nobody in Finland ever mentions St. Nick. It's all about the g.o.a.t.
a few years ago, my family and i drove across europe to croatia for our holiday (mom's scared of flying so it became a 2 day road trip instead). the town in austrai we stayed at for the night was tiny, but there was a woodworking shop with some really nice things and a really cool shopkeep who took us to the back and showed us his HUGE workshop filled with these krampus masks. it was so awesome. in our part of germany, this is not done at all, so it was very interesting to see.
anyways, i think its always kind of funny seeing americans or foreigners in general balk at the violence in children's stories here. like, every few months the stories of struwwelpeter become a meme, and its like wow now i get why germans are like that! or whatever, but speaking as someone who grew up with all these, i think the potential trauma they cause is grossly overstated. even as a child, you know this is fiction. in struwwelpeter, there's one story of a little boy who sucks on his thumbs, so a man comes to his house to cut the thumbs off. well, i knew a lot of other kids who sucked their thumbs, and they were fine; clearly, it's a story meant only to tell me what i should or shouldnt do. same with the krampus, really. even if you were really scared of him, usually itd scare you into acting really kindly the days leading up to christmas, and then your parents would reassure you; or, you know, christmas would come, and you'd survive, and youd be like man that was a close call, huh.
anyways, i do want to go back to Chaos Christmas. sounds fun as hell
Btw since you mentioned my country, I’m from Croatia and we took the austrian tradition of krampus. We also have carnivals in february where people dress as “zvončari” similar to krampus. I love me some spooky stuff for advent period
@@Pollicina_db croatia was really beautiful :) also that's so cool! where i'm from our carnivals are severely not scary at all so its cool that yours are more like halloween in that way
I remember when I learned about Krampas several years ago (there is an amazing parade/festival in Austria celebrating Krampas that gets pretty nuts) The Grinch took on a whole new meaning for me lol. The Cristmas Traditions of Nordic & Germanic countries is fascinating & it's amazing how many countries have folklore/traditions about Witches & Monsters & Ghosts at Christmas. I remember an old B &W horror movie starring a very young Oliver Reed where he was born on Christmas Day & cursed to be a werewolf. I always wondered where that specific lore originated. That film was the only time that particular lore was mentioned that I recall (most classic werewolf movies require the curse be passed on by being bitten by a werewolf & surviving even tho that is a small part of old European werewolf folklore)
The Roman Catholic Church of the early Iron Age/ Dark Ages united Europe under Christondom using religious syncretism. All of the old pagan cults & feast days got a makeover with Christian Saints & new context for old iconography. The Reformation changed all that & suddenly Christmas & Lent were "too pagan" & discouraged. It's a little ironic that now in the US Halloween & Christmas are *The Biggest Holidays* considering their past history of being outlawed.
I’m so excited that you even pronounced Grýla and Jólakötturinn! Great job! I had Jólakötturinn nightmares well into my teens 🤣
The Grinch being a green krampus is interesting, but I think there's more similarities between the Grinch and Grendel in Beowulf. Both are monsters who descend from their cave up in the mountains to attack people because he hates their singing and merriment.
Glad to see Mari Lwyd getting a mention. Def one of my favorite Christmas creatures.
my dad's girlfriend is from newfoundland and when she came to spend christmas with us, she was sad to have missed 'mummering'. i believe in nfld, it used to be sort of like getting dressed up all funny and then going to people's houses and getting wasted, but now its a parade. they also do 'tibb's eve' in nfld, which is basically getting absolutely smashed on december 23rd, which she was still able to celebrate from my dad's house.
Yaaaay, Desk Kaz is back!!! :DDD
Our christmas tradition here in Brazil is sweating your ass off and drink ourselves blind, because it often hits 30 Cº (86 F) at night and many of us just sit watching American (and others) programs and movies, wondering how incredible it'd be to have snow during december.