Belsnickel

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (December 2010)
It has been suggested that this article be merged with Companions of Saint Nicholas. (Discuss) Proposed since December 2011.
Picture of the Pennsylvania Dutch version of the Belsnickel, taken in the 1950s at an event near Philadelphia.

Belsnickel (also Belschnickel, Belznickle, Belznickel, Pelznikel, Pelznickel, from pelzen (or belzen, German for to wallop or to drub[1]) and Nickel being a hypocorism of the given name Nikolaus) is a crotchety, fur-clad Christmas gift-bringer figure in the folklore of the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany along the Rhine, the Saarland, and the Odenwald area of Baden-Württemberg.

The figure is also preserved in Pennsylvania Dutch communities. The Belsnickel shows up at houses 1-2 weeks before Christmas and often created fright because he always knew exactly which of the children misbehaved. [2] He is typically very ragged and mean looking. He wears torn, tattered, and dirty clothes, and he carries a switch in his hand with which to beat bad children. The children escape unharmed, but they are scared into being good so that Santa will bring them presents on Christmas. The tradition also exists in parts of Newfoundland, the prairie provinces of Canada and some communities in the Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.

Contents

Christian perspective [edit]

Belsnickel is a man wearing fur which covers his entire body, and he sometimes wears a mask with a long tongue. He is related to other companions of Saint Nicholas in the folklore of German-speaking Europe. Unlike these figures, Belsnickel does not accompany Saint Nicholas but instead visits alone[3] and combines both the threatening and the benign aspects which in other traditions are divided between the Saint Nicholas and the companion figure.

Krampus and Belsnickel are two separate Christmas characters. Krampus is a wild, horned figure akin to the devil. His name translates to "claw". Belsnickel, on the other hand, dressed in furs and was very human, save for his short stature. He may have been a fur trapper, a hermit, or a very tall elf or tomten as the little people were called in the Scandinavian countries. His folk tale was passed down to generations of Germans who immigrated to America, primarily to Pennsylvania (the Pennsylvania Dutch or Deitsch).

There are two versions of Belsnickel, the rural and the urban characters. Both are described in the book, Christmas in Pennsylvania: a folk cultural study, by Alfred L. Shoemaker and Don Yoder.

Popular culture [edit]

A writer to the letters column of “The Times” refers to an illustration of ‘Pelz-Nickel’ in a book by English author Harriet Myrtle, The Little Sister (1851). German illustrator H.J. Schneider depicted him as a Santa-like figure ‘in a long cloak, pointed hood, a fur round his neck, with a long white beard, and a big bag.’ [4]

Dwight K. Schrute portrayed Belsnickel in The Office episode "Dwight Christmas".

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ German article on (among others) origins of Pelznickel.
  2. ^ Yes, Helen there is a Belsnickel Retrieved January 31, 2013
  3. ^ The Santa who didn't make the cut Retrieved February 1, 2013
  4. ^ HILDA BARRON. "Father Christmas." The Times [London, England] 23 December 1942: p. 5.

External links [edit]

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Belsnickel&oldid=546621180"