There was a case in one kindergarten. The teacher said that Santa Claus will bring gifts to good children, and punish bad ones. The last chance is to learn the rhyme well and appease grandfather.
As a result, the child told the rhyme, and then said that he would not take the gift. Choke on your own sweets! And I read a poem for my mother, there she is sitting! And for the sake of your gifts, I will not be good. I'd rather be bad …
And at home he took his present from under the tree only after dad brought a check from the store and proved that Santa Claus had nothing to do with it.
You can laugh, but what angered our baby is the norm for most European children. By the way!.. Do you know that our beloved New Year is a close relative of our not-so-favorite Halloween?
Where did New Year come from
Different peoples at different times celebrated the onset of the new year at different times of the year. Most often in spring or autumn. In autumn, nature "falls asleep" - the year ends. In the spring she "wakes up" - the year begins.
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In autumn, people thanked nature and those gods whom they worshiped for the harvest, and in the spring they asked for a new harvest … That was exactly the holiday that was Irish Samhain, which later turned into Halloween. In warm countries, agricultural work continues for a very long time, nature here "falls asleep" rather late. Therefore, in Italy, in ancient Rome, the harvest festival - Saturnalia was celebrated already at the end of December! Very close to our current New Year …
Scary Santa Claus
Ancient feasts of fertility were often accompanied by sacrifices. And also - unbridled behavior. The same Romans harvested a grape harvest, pressed young wine out of it - and the village went for a walk … Horror, what a horror!
But most importantly, these holidays were a meeting of life and death. After all, “falling asleep” nature “dies”. What if the next spring doesn't come? What if we eat our fill for the last time?.. So we had to either appease, or, on the contrary, scare away any evil spirits who are just waiting to harm a person … That is why the New Year "overgrown" with all sorts of sinister characters like Krampus and Joulupukki … What is Krampus! Our beloved Grandfather Frost was also considered an evil spirit in Russia. No wonder his name contains the root "pestilence" - "death".
(This is how he tells about himself in Nekrasov's poem "Frost, Red Nose.") Scientists consider our Frost to be one of the incarnations of the East Slavic pagan deity Veles - a werewolf, a man-wolf who had to be appeased with kutya (festive sweet porridge), gifts and carols.
Therefore, gifts to children for the New Year were not given by Santa Claus at all, but by Saint Nicholas (whose day is celebrated shortly before Christmas). But Nicholas is a Christian saint. And who will congratulate Tatar children (they are Muslims) or, for example, Kalmyk and Buryat children (they are Buddhists)? Not to mention atheists, who generally don’t believe in any saints … So they invented in our country in 1935: let Santa Claus give gifts to all children, only not evil, but kind. Precisely 1935 is the year of birth of our Grandfather Frost. Quite, by historical standards, young!
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
For a start - 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 - the gorgeous "Snow Maiden", although Sinterklaas together with Zvart Pit live all year far in the south, in Spain, in a deep cave. And they come to Holland only for New Year 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 holiday, Zwarte Peet takes out this thick book and begins to report to Sinterklaas who behaved how, who studied how, and so on. As a result, gifts are given only to those children who have behaved very well all 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 for a whole year,how to behave well, and only after a year returns to parents
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 many of them at once, as many as 24 pieces. Half of them are beautiful young girls in white robes ("schönperchten"), and the other half are ugly monsters with iron teeth and goat 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 and did not play naughty all year round, she puts a silver coin in a shoe, and for those who were lazy and behaved badly, she cuts their belly and stuffs it with straw and stones. So be Austria - behave well …
Snow Maiden in Italian. Witch
Attention, Italian Snow Maiden! Her name is Epiphania, 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 real witch. An elderly, but not yet 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.
Snow Maiden in German. Devil with horns
Fast forward to southern 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. Look at the German Christmas cards published in the last century - have you already understood how happy the boy is that such a cheerful and cheerful "Snow Maiden" has come 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 the head of a goat 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
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 still … As you wish, but for some reason we like our Snow Maiden more than anyone else!