In southern Germany and Austria, and in territories round about, tonight is Krampusnacht when the diabolical figure of Krampus appears to punish those children who have not been good or derelict in their duties whilst good children will receive presents from St Nicholas tomorrow on his feast day.
Live Science has an article about this custom which stands in relation to the feast of St Nicholas rather like Halloween to All Saints or Mischief Night to either All Saints or Bonfire Night.
I have to admit that before I saw the Live Science article I was unaware of Krampus, but I found considerably more about the tradition - including both theories and evidence for its greater antiquity - on Wikipedia
The Live Science article can be seen at Who is Krampus, and what does he have to do with Christmas? and the Wikipedia entry at Krampus
I do shudder (enjoyably) to think what those killjoy bugbears of popular imagination Child Psychologists make of it all …. unless, of course, they and Krampus are ultimately one and the same.
Quite a few names are far older than most people imagine. Take the humble crane fly, in the UK and English-speaking countries generally called a daddy long legs.
ReplyDeleteSimilar names incorporating "daddy" or "duda" are used for this insect in several Indo European languages, because thousands of years ago in pagan times it was once believed they embodied the spirits of the ancestors!
They have a skeletal boney appearance and make a loud buzzing noise as if trying to communicate, and they mostly appear en masse at about the time of the Celtic festival of Samhain, as Christianised to All Souls Day, when the gates of the underworld were supposed to open and let the spirits of the departed wander the Earth for a while. So it stands to reason, who else would daddy long legs be?
John R Ramsden