Nikolaus is the German name for Santa Claus and goes back to Nikolaus von Myra who lived in the 4th century and died on the 6th of december. Traditionally he was the one who brought the Christmas presents which changed in some countries to the Christ Child (Christkind) and today the main day for christmas presents is the 24th of december.
Still the 6th of december is celebrated with two very special traditions. One is to put your empty boots in front of the door on the 5th evening which will be filled with sweets and some small presents by Nikolaus.
The second tradition is that Nikolaus visits the homes of families with small children and checks in his big book if the kids behaved well during the year and should get any presents (which they usually do). In order to impress the children even more and to motivate them to behave next year the kind Nikolaus is accompanied by a grim looking guy who was called Knecht (servant) Ruprecht where I grew up. They play the "Good cop - Bad cop" game and Knecht ruprecht carries a switch to scare the kids a bit - which seems a bit inappropriate today.
Commentaires