Europe's Scariest Christmas Witches and Monsters

hi I'm Jessica the museum guide and in today's video we're going to be talking about the different Christmas witches and monsters found all throughout Europe now you might already know about Krampus he's kind of like Saint Nicholas's dark alter ego and I'll give him some air time but we're also going to talk about other monsters and witches that accompany Saint Nick including Bell snickle parafuttar and Hans chop as well as the Italian La bafana I'm also going to talk about a few outliers that don't have anything to do with Saint Nicholas including the wonderful and monstrous traditions of Iceland parkita from Germany and a witch from this island guy or Carlin from Scotland please note that a lot of these legends and creatures have dozens of names and variations so if I didn't cover your favorite let me know in the comment section below as always if you like my Channel please follow below and remember to hit the like button it really helps now first let's start here in London right now I'm walking through winter wonderland where you'll see a lot of cues and revelers however the longest line is in front of a peculiar attraction especially for the time of year the haunted house yes a haunted house at Christmas and it's not just a gimmick we love to be scared this time of year that's not a new phenomena for at least a millennium this time of year has been associated with spooky creatures strange rituals monsters and witches here's some footage of me and my good friend kalena experiencing the haunted house getting our cheap scares and having a blast now this is a magical time of year quite literally it's no secret that our modern Christmas celebrations have their roots in ancient Pagan Traditions kissing under the mistletoe bringing a tree inside and lighting the Yule Log all have their origins in ancient Roman and Norse mythology after all the winter solstice is the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere and people all over have marked this date with rituals festivals and superstitions and sure this is a season of Family feasting and decorations watch my video on the Museum of the home to see more but it's also a season of fright and horror don't see the connection allow me to explain we like to be scared at Christmas think about all of the horror movies set this time of year black Christmas Gremlins even Dickens famous Christmas Carol is a ghost story by the way my favorite Christmas horror movie is called debrad or profondo Rosso what's yours tell me in the comments below now the connection between horror and Christmas really makes sense if you think about it late nights Candlelight mystery Wonder songs sung and Pioneer keys they can all easily slip into uncertainty and even fear there is always an element of Darkness at Christmas time let's start by talking about the origins of some of these creatures all over the continent Pagan festivals were transmogrified into Christian Traditions as a way to make this new holiday more palatable to wary followers as a result some of the pre-christian Traditions like the aforementioned mistletoe and eulog get a pseudo-christian makeover and are allowed to stay for instance the 8th Century northumbrian monk bead briefly mentions a heathen festival called modern act mother's night that took place on 24th December sadly he doesn't tell us any more about these ceremonies but some Scholars have linked mother's night to different sacrificial rituals and Germanic female deities just one instance of a witchy tradition on Christmas but there are many others for instance in the orava region of Slovakia people used to splash water around their homes to protect it from witches during the year ahead to this day Norwegian families hide brooms and mops on Christmas Eve to prevent witches from taking to the skies and causing festive Mayhem and similarly an Italian-American Superstition states that any woman born at midnight on Christmas Eve will become a witch even the seemingly innocuous baubles hanging on our tree might have a witchy connection some say they are derived from witch balls which were glass balls popular in the 18th century hung around the house to ward off witches as you can see the connection between Christmas and witches isn't as far of a stretch as you might think if you know of any other witchy Traditions around this time of year leave them in the comments section below now if you've only ever heard of one Christmas monster it's likely Krampus he's been increasing in popularity outside of his native Austria over the past few decades with a horror movie franchise the most notable sign of his notoriety Krampus is the dark companion of Saint Nicholas who I explain in detail in my museum of the Home Video linked just above Saint Nicholas rewards good children with gifts and candy on December 6th which is his Saints Day however Krampus is his hell-bound counterpart known by many names across the continent such as nectaruprecht Bartel parquen schmutzley Rumple class and many others he has horns dark hair and long fangs with a lulling tongue and he waves a chain and Bell to cause a lot of Rocket while Saint Nicholas rewards good children with sweets and small gifts Krampus carries a bunch of birch sticks so he can hit misbehaving children and then he shoves the children into a sack and drags them down into hell I mean festive not really his name is derived from the German word krampin which means claw and he's often thought to be the son of the Norse god hell with some additions from Greek mythology like the goat Hooves of satirs and fawns Krampus actually has his own holiday in Germanic countries Krampus knocked and he arrives on the night of December 5th the evening before Saint Nicholas day to assess the children and decide who he will snatch away to the underworld after being banned by the Catholic church and repressed by various governments Krampus is having a big comeback around the world in a more modern take which you can see here people over Austria Germany Hungary Slovenia and the Czech Republic and increasingly further afield dress up in elaborate costumes for a Krampus love or Krampus run to drink and chase people through the streets let me know in the comments if you've ever been to a krampuslav now if you're a fan of the American office you already know about Belsnickel or maybe you're from Pennsylvania or you're German or swiss in the American office Christmas episode Dwight Schrute played by rain Wilson dresses up in a furry hat and an oversized coat smearing coal on his face and wearing a beard filled with sticks and twigs now you might have thought this was a gag just for the show but that's a pretty accurate representation of the German Yule figure today Bell's nickel is most popular in Pennsylvania dating back to the earliest German and swiss settlers in the 18th century many of the existing European settlers were Quakers and so they didn't celebrate Christmas but the new German and swiss settlers brought Christmas trees caroling and of course Belsnickel if Krampus is the Dark Side of Saint Nicholas and Saint Nicholas's A Gift Giver we can think of Belsnickel as a mix of the two he passes judgment on this spot and gives out gifts to good children but he tortures those who have misbehaved even if you lie to Bell snickel he knows when you've been naughty sound familiar now I should note that Bell's nickel is very similar to parafutar whose French for father whipper he too accompanies Saint Nicholas on his rounds and he either gives naughty children lumps of coal or just straight up eats them this Legend dates to around 1250 and can get quite gruesome with parafutar drugging bad children slitting their throats and stewing them in a barrel I mean this stuff makes Q Anon look tame in the legend Saint Nicholas resurrected these children and then made per footar his partner or his assistant is a punishment for his crimes both of these seem like a really poorly thought out plan now in the 1930s oddly enough perfuitar experienced a brief surge in popularity in America where he was called father flogg or Spanky and he had a female accomplice called mother flog they weren't associated with Christmas but they did Dole out horrible punishments for misbehavior such as cutting out a child's tongue for lying Merry Christmas now let's move on to Hans trap often called the dreaded Christmas scarecrow like Krampus perfuitar and Belsnickel Hans trap is an anti-saint Nick who tortures and even eats naughty children he hails from the French German border regions of alsas and lahraine and he was likely inspired by the real-life Hans Von Trotta a knight who lived from 1450 to 1503 the legend states that the pope soon banished him from Alsace so he moved to Bavaria where he developed a taste for human flesh he began to disguise himself as a scarecrow so he could trap unwitting children and he successfully snared a local Shepherd's son after cutting him to pieces and roasting him on a fire he was then killed by a Divine lightning bolt to this day children are still warned about Han's trap however he often appears with his luminous counterpart Chris Kindle she is there to soothe the children who have just been terrorized by Hans trap she wears a long white dress and a crown with four candles and she has her own helper when she hands out spice bread and sweets pecker wrestle a magical Christmas donkey children leave him wreaths of hay on their doorstep on Christmas Eve here you can see Hans trap and Chris Kindle together now for our first Christmas witch buffana she's a Kinder more Christmassy witch and she hails from Italy and her name likely comes from the Feast of the Epiphany on 6th January While others think she's a modern version of the Roman goddess strania on Epiphany Eve she takes sweets to children all over Italy oh she's even tied in with Biblical references some say that the three wise men took shelter with her on their way to the baby Jesus bafana was so taken by their request that she tried to follow them but she couldn't find the Magi so instead she hopped on her broomstick naturally and took sweets to all of the children she could find sliding down their chimneys in the Italian city of Urbana there is still an annual La Befana festival and more than 40 000 people attend every year while bafana brings candy to Good Children she brings a lump of coal to the bad children and she's also an excellent housekeeper so she always sweeps up the floor of your house before leaving some even think that the sweeping does away with the problems of the past year so she's welcome at mine anytime just like Santa many families leave a small glass of wine and a plate of snacks out for bafana however if you do catch a glimpse of her beware she might thump you with her broomstick because she likes to remain unseen Frau parakita is another Austrian German Legend and she certainly isn't as sweet as buffana in fact she's commonly associated with Krampus historically Frau parakita was also known as barakata or Bertha and she's associated with the Scandinavian God Friga because of her obsession with spinning and Domesticity she has a beaky big nose made of iron dresses and Rags carries a walking stick and generally looks like a down at heel old woman however she has a long knife hidden in her skirt because it's Christmas so why not I guess Frau perkita wants to check out your home and ensure it is neat and tidy and make sure all of your flax is spun by 12th night the Feast of the Epiphany if your home isn't neat or your work at the loom is incomplete or you haven't left her a traditional bowl of porridge she'll come traipsing through your house and even set your loom on fire and that's not the worst part if you're particularly messy she'll also disembowel you and replace your guts with rocks and straw while Krampus is out and about on December 5th the night before Saint Nicholas day parakita is associated with Epiphany and you might see her swooping through the sky at night accompanied by The Souls of unbaptized children you might also see here on the last three Thursdays before Christmas which are also known as Berk till nights or knocking nights sometimes you'll see Frau pakita referred to as hola which means bright or shining that's because she is associated with Epiphany which is also known as shining Knight the Dual nature of the pretty parakita and the Ugly pakita can often be seen on display at a perk ten lauf or perkotton run and let's be honest the ugly perkita is way cooler now here's an unexpected Alpine Scottish connection the guy or Carlene she's a Scottish witch or sometimes called a fairy and she shares a lot in common with Frau perkita she too has a long nose although it isn't made of iron and she's obsessed with spinning she's another witch designed specifically to punish women during the holiday season if you haven't finished spinning your flax by January 6th she'll beat you with an iron club which is slightly nicer than disemboweling you what a kindness on Christmas no way she might also eat you let's head to Iceland which has its own truly unhinged Christmas traditions we'll start with Gorilla whose name means Growler in English she's the matriarch of all the creatures I'm about to talk about Gorila is an ogres who lives in an ice cave and she boils naughty children alive and then eats them as far back as the 13th century she was described as having quote 40 Tales a bag on her back a sword in her hand coming to carve out the stomachs of children she is also described as having bad Nails on each finger eyes in the back of her head and goat-like horns with a bearded chin and blackened teeth by the 19th century grila gains a second husband leppaludi she ate her first husband of course together she and Lepa looti have 20 children the 13 you alloweds plus seven more and sometimes even more than that with a complicated family tree of step children and half siblings the ulads torment children and pester families together they also own a giant cat who I'll talk about shortly the earliest Yule is celebrations were a time to gather with family but also a time for elves trolls and other spooky creatures characters like gorilla were embellished in stories but would also appear in the flesh in the form of masked figures and costume revelers similar to our own British traditions of mummering and you might even run into gorilla in the streets of Reykjavik to this day you can think of her as a personification of the darkness and frigidity of the winter she is at one with the harsh landscape and she is cruel and punishing a stand-in for the trials and tribulations of living in such an unforgiving climate now that we've spoken about Gorila we need to speak speak more about her rambunctious trolls Sons the 13 you will Lads The Lads first appear around the 18th century but by 1746 the government had to enact a law to prevent parents from scaring their children too much with stories about them now the lads used to be less distinct but a popular 1932 poem by Johannes urkotlam gave them more individualized personalities so here we go here's all 13 of the lads sheep coat clawed he suckles from use in Farmer's sheep's sheds gulligock he sneaks the foam off the top of milking buckets stubby he reaches up to steal food from frying pans spoon liquor he licks spoons when you're not looking pot liquor he licks the unwashed pots my dog does this when the dishwasher is open Bowl liquor the same again for bowls there's lots of licking going on here door Slammer he slams doors and Stomps around skier gobbler Heats all of the Icelandic yogurt called skier sausage swiper steel sausages window peeper a Peeping Tom who likes to steal door sniffer with his huge nose he sniffs at your door to detect baked goods meet hook he steals your smoked lamb and other hanging meats and finally the candle beggar always after your candles especially important in a dark Icelandic winter I can't lie while some of this is pretty innocuous a lot of these Lads are very creepy and we're looking at you window peeper there was a real attempt in the 20th century to make these characters more palatable to kind of sanctify them the eulads got friendlier faces bushier beards and even red and white fur costumes however over the past few decades Icelandic people have become more passionate about protecting their language and customs led by the national museum the whole country has banded together to return the ulads to their traditional Roots getting them back in their ragged wool clothing and making them more Gruff and fearsome they each appear in the museum during the 12 days before Christmas Eve let me know if you'd like me to visit the museum next Christmas come on twist my arm make me go to Reykjavik let's finish our tour of the Christmas witches with the terrifying Yola katurin or yulkat before the 19th century he was also a standalone character but today he lives with gorilla and the eulads he is not a normal cat though he's a giant for one thing and he eats people who haven't received new clothes before Christmas which has given rise to the Icelandic tradition of wearing new socks on Christmas Eve Yola carturan spends his day roaming the countryside looking for victims and making sure everyone is warm and cozy in their new clothes at Christmas time he actually has kind of a practical purpose as Eisen began exporting much of its wool in the Middle Ages since the Yule cat only attacks people who haven't received new clothes he emphasizes the importance of wool production and this leads me to an interesting final thought Traditions only continue when they serve the population so they tend to have practical rationales and boost morale think about it all of these frightening Christmas creatures serve a purpose they keep your wife spitting her flax your children well behaved and your wool production High it might not be healthy by our modern standards but using fear to motivate the community is very very effective and also leads to the need for therapy so let me know if you'd like me to visit Freud's house here in London in the New Year we're all going to need him after this video well that's it for our explanation of Europe's Christmas monsters and wishes I can't wait to hear what you think about it in the comments below I'll see you the next time I'm in the museum have a Merry Christmas and a split Blended Krampus knocked

Channel: The Museum Guide

Views: 14,869

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Id: o3opngGyDkM

Length: 20min 52sec (1252 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 05 2022