The Santa Claus tradition goes back to the fourth century Nicholas of Myrna, a bishop in what is now Turkey, who is the patron saint of children. That is why Samichlaus is often dressed as a bishop, complete with mitre and staff, and doesn’t always wear red. He does, however, have a white beard.
Santa Claus, wearing his red and white cape, is more of a marketing instrument from the United States – even if his origins go back to St Nicholas.
A Swiss Vigilante Santa: Have a Merry Schmutzli!
What is most interesting about this tradition is the fact that it actually give children something to fear at Christmas. No longer is the classic taunt “Santas’ watching” applicable, the phrase “Schmutzli is watching” has far more fear behind it, and only rightly so, the black faced nemesis is associated with stealing children, carries a broom of sticks with which to hit misbehaving children and is even called Père Fouettard or Father ‘Whip’ in the French speaking part of Switzerland.
Local teenagers have even been known to dress up as groups of Schmutzli’s and go around implementing their own style of vigilante Christmas justice on younger children.
One Christmas song can add a new verse:
You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I’m telling you why
Schmutzli is coming to townHe’s got a stick, And he’ll whip you twice;
It doesn’t matter if you’re naughty or nice
Schmutzli is coming to town
Sounds like excellent incentive for good behavior from children to me.
OK. The part where Santa is no longer an anagram:
Krampusnacht
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLnl5ZWG4tg
Krampus is the dark companion of St. Nicholas, the traditional European winter gift-bringer who rewards good children each year on December 6. The kindly old Saint leaves the task of punishing bad children to a hell-bound counterpart The Horned Devil, also known as Krampusknown by many names across the continent — Knecht Ruprecht, Certa, Perchten, Black Peter, Schmutzli, Pelznickel, Klaubauf, and Krampus. Usually seen as a classic devil with horns, cloven hooves and monstrous tongue, but can also be spotted as a sinister gentleman dressed in black or a hairy man-beast. Krampus punishes the naughty children, swatting them with switches and rusty chains before dragging them in baskets to a fiery place below.
