December 6th: Christmas comes early?

Published by *lynne* at 2:00 am under Public Holidays & Festivals, Switzerland, USA Edit This

While December 25th is the day most of us might associate with receiving presents, over in Switzerland and many parts of Europe, children get a visit from Saint Nicholas, or Samichlaus, almost 3 weeks earlier, on December 6th.

Based on my exposure to him, I believe Samichlaus usually arrives in a pre-arranged large gathering of children: at a school, the village square, etc. While in this picture he looks very much like a cardinal, I’ve also seen him dressed in what I would call a Santa Claus outfit - the familiar red with white trim, and the accompanying hat - but without the excess weight. Frankly, he looks much better when slim!

Schmutzli & Samichlaus
Originally uploaded by Michael Beat

For every child, Samichlaus looks into his golden book to see if they’ve been naughty or nice. If they’ve been nice, they get a little present, which might be satsumas (a type of mandarin orange), peanuts (in the shell), or the greatest of Swiss products: chocolate!*

But what about those who have been naughty?

Well, it turns out ol’ St Nick doesn’t travel alone. Helping him cart the sack of goodies around is his partner Schmutzli. You can see him in this picture, dressed in brown robes.

He also comes armed with either a bunch of sticks, or a broom… Can you guess what’s coming?

Children deemed to have misbehaved get their just desserts in the form of the threat of a beating, or, in the olden days, an actual beating at Schmutzli’s hands! According to wikipedia, Schmutzli would threaten to put the bad children in a sack and take them back to the dark forest, or, even worse, he would throw the sack into the river, thus drowning the naughty children. Yikes!

I really like this tradition, morbid sacking and drowning of children notwithstanding. The threat of not just “not getting a nice present”, but of getting a public spanking as a result of poor behavior throughout the year, is a good lesson in cause and effect, delayed gratification, and accountability…

… especially when you see the horrendous commercialism that is Christmas nowadays, especially here in the USA. Seriously, it seems as if Christmas is all about the presents, and nothing to do with commemorating the (designated) birthday of a very important man who helped change the world. You should see the television commercials pushing all sorts of ridiculous items. Now is usually the time for the Ch-ch-ch-ch-Chia Pet and Clap on! Clap off! The Clapper! ads to come out of hibernation, for example. With the economic meltdown that’s occurring, however, perhaps the average person’s focus will change a little? One can only hope…

Cheers,

*lynne*