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St. Nicholas

By Josef Ruland
Information kindly provided by the Consulate General of Federal Republic of Germany, Vancouver

From an early date, a person representing the saint handed these gifts out to children. An adult used to - and still does - put on a Bishop's robe, and also has a Bishop's mitre and staff. He then goes to the houses where children live, and takes the presents out of the big sack carried around by his attendants. The children sit and pray and sing until the sound of a bell announces that the Saint is entering their house. In early times, children chose a child Bishop from their midst on December the 5th, the evening before the festival, and this representative performed the allotted for two days. In large families nowadays, a relative, friend, or even the father dresses up as a Bishop and examines the children. "Have you been good? Have you prayed diligently? Have you been well-behaved towards your parents and teachers?" This custom is very old. Abraham a Santa Clara, the celebrated Augustinian court preacher at Vienna towards the end of th 17th century, has described what was involved. "It is a very old custom that Nicholas should put something in children's shoes today. He comes on the previous evening though to examine whether the children have been well instructed by their teacher, tutor, schoolmaster, arithmetician, grammarian, and other pedagogues in matters of faith, spelling, syntax, reading and writing, computation, and languages. The Nicholas thus asks how children have behaved throughout the year? Whether they pray gladly? Whether they are obedient to their parents and teachers? Whether Hans and Paul are perhaps too lazy?…"

Little has changed there up to the present day. Such a distribution of presents takes place everywhere, even where people no longer believe in Saints and their miraculous powers. The Saint does not come alone though. To the children's dismay, he is attended by a black figure wrapped up in old clothes, sacking, or furs. This figure has different names all over Germany.

In Southern Germany it is known as the Krampus, in North-West Germany as Pelzebock or Pelznickel, in the Rhineland as Hans Muff, and in Silesia as Bartel or the Wild Bear. In Hesse there are two figures, Gumphinkel and the Bear, and in the Palatinate either Nicholas or his attendant is known as Stappklos, the plodder and grumbler. Close to the Dutch border and in the Netherlands this attendant is called Black Pit. In middle-class families though, the most celebrated name since the Reformation has been Knecht Ruprecht.

This black man carries on his back the sack containing all the delights to come. He also carries the rod which the holy man seems to need. Disobedient children are punished with the rod. At the same time, Ruprecht growls, rattles his chains, or shows the teeth in his black face so that it is not just children who are scared of him. "Just wait until Ruprecht comes" is still a threat in many German families.

That was also the reason why people in some areas forego a personal visit from St. Nicholas. In these places he brings the presents secretly by night. Children put out their shoes on the previous evening so that the Saint can put something in. In earlier times when people still had an open fireplace in their home, children put their shoes under the chimney. Today they put them under the bed or next to a radiator. It is still said though that sometimes - even in our modern world - there is a little rod in some shoes as a warning for the recipient.

Anyone who travels through Germany in early December in the hope of encountering Nicholas will meet with many figures that are vaguely reminiscent of the holy Bishop but are often anything but children's friends. It is not therefore surprising that in the big cities the influence of liberal circles, of other countries, of television, and not least of the large department stores has transformed the Holy Man (as he is called in the Rhineland) into Father Christmas. The latter has now taken over the role of bringer of presents. In some families and in some places he still distributes his gifts on December the 5th but he increasingly takes the place of the two original bringers of gifts in a child's heaven - Nicholas and the Christ Child. In Heinrich Hoffmann's "Struwwelpeter", the great Nicholas may still duck bad boys in the giant inkpot but his dress and appearance reveal that he has already become Father Christmas.

Advent • The Christmas Markets • Christmas Eve • The Christmas Tree

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