This is the time of year when accounts are reckoned in terms of naughtiness and niceness. I thought it might be interesting to look at different countries to see what superstitions abound in the darkness of winter.
AUSTRIA has some gruesome figures:
Krampus is a half-goat, half-demon who plays the part
of Santa’s counterpart and instead of presents he doles out punishment to
naughty children.
Frau
Perchta is a
gruesome witch who also metes out punishments, said to be brutal, during the 12
days of Christmas, but she also bestows gifts on the deserving. For all that,
she looks a bit icy!
GERMANY
Belsnickel arrives two days before Christmas, clothed in
rags. Not so severe as the others, he merely dishes out warnings to the
naughties and sweets to the good dudes.
ITALY
The La Befana character,
shared with Russia and known as Baboushka, may be an old broomstick-travelling
witch, but she is gentle and leaves cookies for children.
ICELAND has an imaginative cast of personae, the most scary of which is Gryla whose name means ‘The Growler’! A giant troll, she lives in a cave, kidnapping and feasting on naughty children who have not obeyed their parents. A useful discipline tool, that concept!
Associated with her is the Yule Cat who feeds on anyone who hasn’t received new clothes for Christmas. So, a kind of Consumer Cat, then?
The Yule Lads are the 13 sons of Gryla, who are
known for playing tricks. They are identified by their pranks – e.g. The Spoon
Licker, The Window Peeper and, my favourite, The Sausage Swiper!
These lads seem to me to resemble
the Greek Kallikantzaroi. They are believed to live underground, sawing
the trunk of the World Tree so that it will collapse. However, at Christmas
time they’re allowed to come to the surface in order to cause trouble for
mankind. By Epiphany, January 6th,
they return home to their underground sawing, but during their absence the tree
has self-healed, so they must begin their Sisyphean task all over again.
As for their appearance, the general
perception is that they are small black imps, humanoid with long black tails.
They are nocturnal beings who like to annoy people – things getting broken or
lost can be blamed on these mischievous little beings. Burning the Yule log for
the duration of the Twelve Days was seen as a form of protection against their
naughtiness.
I think our Kallikantzaroi are preferable to the Krampus and Gryla- they feel more like cheery wee leprechauns who just like to cause a little mischief. So, the following depictions of them are appropriate as little devils
or
little monkeys!
May your kallikantzaroi be benign
and may 2023 bring you health, joy and good fortune !
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