St. Nikolaus Day

Christkind 

I just realized that this day is a special German holiday and I really cannot believe that as it is one of the most important holidays for kids.
St. Nikolaus is somehow like Santa Claus, in fact both have the same origin but there are big differences.

First of all: St. Nikolaus Day is on 6th of December and you have to know that Germany is kind of split when it comes to the ones that bring Christmas presents.
In northern Germany it is done by someone called "Weihnachtsmann" who is quite similar to Santa Claus. But in southern Germany it is the Christkind ("Christ Child"). And this one is a really weird thing. On the one hand it is supposed to be baby Jesus on the other hand most images show something like a female angel dressed in a night gown, having a halo and being accompanied by angels. Yeah, I know, that sounds weird, but still I am part of the Christkind fraction.

But back to St. Nikolaus.

This traditions leads back to the dark ages and a bishop who was very generous.
You may know about him as he is also the model for Santa Claus. In Germany all this got mixed with heathen traditions. On 6th of December children put their shoes in front of their bedroom doors and hope that Nikolaus comes and fills them with sweets. Traditionally there were nuts and fruit as apples and oranges, nowadays it is mainly chocolate.
Sometimes Nikolaus even comes to your home in the evening and reads from his book,
whether the children were polite during the year or not. Children have to recite poems, play Christmas songs on whatever instrument they are forced to learn and a costumed bearded guy has to listen to their attempts. In the end they get a package of sweets or small presents.

St. Nikolaus accompanied by Perchten

Over here in Bavaria he also brings his helper "Knecht Ruprecht" (Krampus) who brings a rod to punish cheeky children. This goes back to ancient heathen traditions, too and sounds lots more cruel than it really is.
Where I live there are even more terrible customs: there is this one old heathen tradition that people dress as "Perchten", a hairy monster with ugly mask which is meant to personalize the evil.
This must sound terrible. But this might have the same origin as Halloween. And it is really much fun to see all these people running through the streets and scaring the hell out of you.
(When I first met one of them I was working at a small cafe and one of those funny guys creeped up on me, I thought I was about to die when I turned around and starred into that mask)

But most of the time St. Nikolaus comes on its own, brings some chocolate, dates, dried figs, sweets, small presents and stuff. And I will never forget how excited I was to wake up in the morning, running down the stairs and finding sweets stuffed into my shoes.
Even though times are changing - the traditional St. Nikolaus looked more like a bishop- dressed in gold and white and wearing a bishop's mitre with a big golden cross and nowadays he starts turning into Santa Claus, with its' distinctive red bonnet and dressed in red and white- this is one day that is very special. All those Nikolaus parties in kindergarten and school are so one of a kind.
So happy St. Nikolaus to all of you!