Knecht Ruprecht

Today, Jared and I took Avery to the Domes as Mondays are free for Milwaukee residents. We wanted to see how the third dome was decorated for Christmas (we went three years ago and they had Christmas Trees everywhere representing different countries). Well this year, the dome just had poinsettias in it and then randomly placed throughout were painted figures made from wood representing different Christmas personas from different countries. Each figure also had a plaque briefly describing the legend/folklore of each.

The figure I found the most interesting was Knecht Ruprecht, loosely translated as Knight Rupert or Servant Rupert. Because I'm being lazy, here is the description of him from wikipedia:

In the folklore of Germany, Knecht Ruprecht, or Knight Rupert, is a companion of Saint Nicholas. He first appears in written sources in the 17th century, as a figure in a Nuremberg Christmas procession.^[1]

Tradition holds that he appears in homes on St. Nicholas day (December 6), and is a man with a long beard, wearing fur or covered in pea-straw.^[2] Knecht Ruprecht sometimes carries a long staff and a bag of ashes, and wears little bells on his clothes.^[2] Sometimes he rides on a white horse, and sometimes he is accompanied by fairies or men with blackened faces dressed as old women.^[2]

According to tradition, Knecht Ruprecht asks children whether they can pray. If they can, they receive apples, nuts, and gingerbread. If they cannot, he beats the children with his bag of ashes.^[2] In other (presumably more modern) versions of the story, Knecht Ruprecht gives naughty children useless, ugly gifts such as lumps of coal, sticks, and stones, while well-behaving children receive sweets from Saint Nicholas. He also can be known to give naughty children a switch (stick) in their shoes for their parents to beat them with, instead of candy, fruit and nuts, in the German tradition.

What I learned: Germans have ridiculous folklore, where they can have a character who leaves a switch for parents to beat their children with. I wonder how many parents used that excuse: "Oh look, Knecht Rupert left a switch in your shoes because he knew you were naughty. I guess I have to beat you now!" How terrible!