Our Santa Claus is accompanied everywhere by a cheerful and kind granddaughter - Snegurochka. And in other countries? Let's try to tell you about the most unusual companions of Santa Claus, but you yourself decide who you like best …
The Snow Maiden in Dutch. Yabed
To begin with, welcome to Holland! By the way, local children don't say "Santa Claus", but "Sinterklaas". However, in this case, we are more interested in Sinterklaas' faithful assistant - Zvarte Peet, aka Black Peter.
Just look at the portrait - a gorgeous "Snow Maiden", right? First, the man. Secondly - a Negro! You have already imagined that Grandfather Frost comes to visit you in the company of a negro - it's funny, isn't it? Sinterklaas, together with Zvarthe Pit, live all year far in the south, in Spain, in a deep cave! And they come to Holland only on New Year's and Christmas.
All year round, Zwarte Peet is busy with a very important matter - he somehow magically learns about the actions of all Dutch children and writes these actions in a special journal. And when it comes to the actual holiday, Zwarte Peet takes out this thick book and begins to sneak at Sinterklaas, in the sense of reporting who behaved how, who studied how, and so on.
As a result, gifts are given only to those children who have behaved very well throughout the year. Those children who did not behave very well receive a piece of coal or a birch rod as a gift. And those who behaved very badly, Zwarte Peet stuffs in a bag and takes with him to Spain; there he locks them in his cave, teaches them how to behave for a whole year, and only after a year returns them to their parents.
Promotional video:
Snow Maiden in Austrian style. Scarecrow
And now we go to Austria. The local Snow Maidens are called "Perkhty", and there are not one, but a lot of them at once, as many as 24 pieces. Half of them are beautiful young girls in white clothes ("schönperchten"), and the other half are ugly monsters with iron teeth and goat's or ram's horns ("shiachperchten").
The Percht procession along the street is called "Perchtenlauf" - the first to go are the beautiful Perchts, which are supposed to bring wealth and prosperity to local residents in the new year. They are followed by the ugly Perkhty, who with flags and ponytails scare away and drive away evil spirits - otherwise the village or city will remain at the mercy of the forces of evil for the whole year.
According to an ancient legend, on the night before Epiphany (January 5), Perkhta comes to every home - and for those children who worked hard all year round and did not play naughty, she puts a silver coin in their shoe, and for those who were lazy and behaved badly, she cuts their belly and stuffs it with straw and stones! Look at the photo - how the ugly Perkhty are walking down the street. Well, just cute, agree? As you will see, the New Year mood is immediately felt …
Snow Maiden in Italian. Witch
Attention, Italian Snow Maiden! Her name is Epiphany, or, in the local language, Befana. By the way, among Italian children, Befana, in popularity, long ago tucked Babbo Natale himself into the belt (that is, speaking in Russian, Father Frost).
This is a very, very real, one might even say "classic" witch. An elderly, but not quite old, good-natured woman, wears a pointed hat and flies on a broomstick. He does the usual witchcraft all year round, and on New Year's Eve he grabs a bag of toys on his back, sits on a broom and climbs into houses through the chimneys. For Befana, Italian children hang stockings on the fireplace in which she lays gifts.
However, Befana gives gifts only to obedient children! If the child did not behave very well and was lazy, Befana puts a piece of coal in his stocking. By the way, the writer Gianni Rodari portrayed the extremely unsympathetic Befana in the book "The Journey of the Blue Arrow" - in it Befana has modernized, left the witch's tricks in the past and works as the owner of a large toy store. She only delivers toys to children not for nothing, but only for money.
Snow Maiden in German. Devil with horns
Fast forward to Germany. The local companion of Santa Claus is called Krampus, and he looks just creepy - a black demon with burning eyes, a long tongue, a tail and goat horns.
In the hands of Krampus - a sack and a whip (or a bunch of rods). In this case, we can observe the classic "division of labor" - Santa Claus gives gifts from his bag to good and obedient children, and Krampus puts bad and naughty children in a bag and punishes them with a whip.
Wow New Years, right? You will come to your Christmas tree to lead round dances, and there they will remember that you received a deuce in mathematics, but did not tell your parents - and not only will they not give you any gift, but put it in a sack, and even whip!
Look at the German Christmas cards published in the last century - have you already understood how the boy is glad that such a cheerful and cheerful "Snow Maiden" came to visit him?
The Snow Maiden in Finnish. Goat
In Finland, children call Santa Claus the funny word Joulupukki. Modern Youlupukki looks like the most ordinary Santa - a kind grandfather in a red fur coat, with a white beard and gifts in a bag. Only for some reason, accompanied by a goat. Why?
And the thing is that the word "youlu" in Finnish means "yule", that is, "Christmas", and "pukki" means … "goat"! Yes, believe it or not - but in Finland one of the traditional ancient symbols of Christmas and New Year is the goat, and not just a goat, but a werewolf goat!
And not so long ago, this very goat came to the children's house on a festive night - on old postcards and pictures from Finnish books you can see a tall man with a goat's head or with goat's horns. In one hand he holds a bag of gifts for those who behaved well; in the other - rods for punishing disobedient Finnish children. And the most notorious lazy and non-hearsay old Joulupukki stuffed into a sack, took them to Lapland, where he boiled in a cauldron and ate, that's it!
In the modern tradition, of course, this character has become kind and "divided". Kind Santa Claus remained separately, and separately - just a goat, an indispensable companion of Santa …
Sleep-hoo-roch-ka
In fact, every joke has its share of a joke. All the traditional New Year and Christmas characters described above are folklore heroes who are an integral part of the culture of their country. What seems bizarre, ugly or sinister to us is, on the contrary, just a fun game and a celebration for some. You should see German children who scatter with laughter in different directions from the tailed Krampus with a whip (not a real one, but, of course, an actor) … In general, tradition is tradition. But anyway…
As you wish, but for some reason we like our Snow Maiden more than anyone!