The dark companions
Saint Nicholas, bishop of Myra, brings children gifts. But in many places he does not come alone. Alongside him walk figures who threaten the children who have not been good.
- Krampus belongs to the Alpine region: Austria, Bavaria and South Tyrol. He has horns, a long tongue and a shaggy coat, and he rattles chains and birch switches. At today’s Krampus runs, whole groups in carved masks parade through towns and villages.
- Knecht Ruprecht is Saint Nicholas’s companion in northern and central Germany, a man dressed in dark clothes who carries a switch and a sack.
- Père Fouettard, “Father Whipper,” accompanies Saint Nicholas in eastern France and Belgium. One legend makes him a butcher who had killed children and must now serve the saint as punishment.
- Zwarte Piet accompanies Sinterklaas in the Netherlands and Belgium. His portrayal in blackface has been the subject of fierce debate for years and has been changed in many places.
Origins
These companions link the Christian figure of Saint Nicholas with older ideas of frightening winter figures, the kind that also appear in the Wild Hunt and the Perchten runs. How old this layer really is often cannot be said with confidence. Many of today’s customs were reshaped in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Episode on this topic
- Saint Nicholas and His Unholy Companions (in German)