What Santa Looks Like in Different Countries

Santa Claus Kris Kringle jolly old Saint Nick the man goes by many names but his mission has always remained the same to spread joy and prosperity to children than to judge them which is fine for some reason he's a man that we allow into our homes a man we trust implicitly a man who hoards technology well beyond our means capable of crossing the globe in a single night and spying on every child on the planet in Russia he goes by father frost or at least until the Russian Revolution after which he was known more affectionately as an enemy to the state in Germany he bears an uncanny resemblance to Belsnickel another bearded gift-giving character he's just like Santa only slightly more terrifying but who is he really where did he come from is he the only one of his kind or are there others but first today's episode is going to talk about prominent mythic figures across a wide variety of cultures in history every culture has its own stories traditions and values and it isn't our place to tell you how to appreciate or celebrate anything I'm also going to absolutely butcher some of the pronunciations on these characters I'm so sorry and without her of the way let's get into it allow me to introduce Saint Nicholas of Myra a 3rd century monk devoted to the Christian faith Myra was a region of Anatolia also known as Asia Minor also known as modern-day Turkey known as a pious man with a kind nature Saint Nicholas had an affinity toward gift-giving in charity there are a lot of stories about the man but we're talking about someone who lived his life during the 3rd centuries so the credibility of some deeds are a little easier to discern than others for example use your inheritance to pay off the dowry of three young women so that their father won't have to employ them at a brothel resurrect three sign boys who have been left in barrels because a crazed innkeeper wanted to pickle them an authentic or not these stories of generosity and kindness have kept st. Nicholas's tale alive and well since his recorded death on December 6 343 C II or st. Nicholas's day well that and his tendency to trade toys for the hey Dutch children would leave in clogs for him what did you do with the hay I'll feed to his donkey of course though at this point in his career he would be known as Sinterklaas an abbreviation on the Dutch inflection of his name since Nicholas that was of course into the sixteenth century with the Protestant Reformation in Europe a sort of pivot in spiritual ideology that elected to among other things do away with the stories of Sinterklaas and other such saints nevertheless it was a tough sell to the community perhaps because change particularly when contextualized by centuries of tradition is something we struggle with as a people or maybe it was because the Reformation is replacement for Saint Nicholas was baby Jesus hard to tell to quote Gerry bowel er author of Santa Claus a history and professor of history at the University of Manitoba the infants carrying capacity is very limited and he's not very scary either hold onto that last part of the quote we're gonna touch on that soon needless to say folks didn't really adapt the story of Sinterklaas would inevitably find itself travelling across the great Atlantic Ocean and settling roots within the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam also known today as New York City lionized primarily by a group of Dutch intellectuals that referred to themselves as the Knickerbockers who would continue to carry the legends of st. Nicholas for the next few centuries this is when we find the name of Sinterklaas morph into the much more familiar Santa Claus through the writings of American author Washington Irving these stories and stories by other writers would continue to shape the figure into the one we know today with the addition of a flying wagon a team of reindeer in a fondness towards cookies and milk oh don't mind if I do oh no no no they're not for you silly they're for Santa Oh aren't you leaving anything out for him this year free food for a festive freeloader yeah I'll pass oh okay and what about you brew huh it's almost Christmas brew haven't you prepared anything for Santa oh right preparations thanks for reminding me chill hey quick question feel free to answer your own pace but what the hell is going on here precautionary measures I've been researching Santa as well as a few other Santa like characters some of what I'm finding is well a little disturbing better to be safe than sorry would you like to hear about Santa's evil girlfriend yes please remember when Balor suggested that baby Jesus wasn't scary enough to replace Sinterklaas well our next subject is Krampus a figure prominent in Austria Bavaria Croatia Slovakia and other parts of Central Europe if you're not from that neck of the world then you might have heard of them from the 2015 film Krampus or potentially the 2015 smash hit a Christmas story starring Krampus or 2015's critical darling Krampus The Reckoning which is not a sequel to Krampus because it came out three weeks earlier or from these hey Marvel feel free to take notes there are a couple things that make Krampus unique do you think it'd be the horns and the hooves but no he's just a satire and that's how they look for those unaware a satire is a mythical nature spirit traditionally distinguished by several goat leg features usually sporting a few extra hooves hair and horns than your average non goat person they're also depicted as being great at parties I didn't like parties before I'm not sure where I stand on them now to quote from the 1958 journal entry the Krampus in Styria by folklore enterprises writer Maurice Bruce behind the good seat hovers the black shaggy goat horned figure of the Krampus cloven hooves and a long tail conspicuous features of this roaring prancing Santi R who rattles the chains that hang from his wrists and brandishes a bundle of birch twigs which he wields with more energy the discrimination okay so I made up my mind about Sacher parties what I find fascinating is that throughout most of these depictions Krampus is working alongside Santa rather than taking his position so instead of a santa figure that discerns naughty and nice we have a dynamic with saint nick divvying out candy and presents two nice children while Krampus swoops up the naughty wants to eat 2016 Krampus unleashed guess which one this is a sequel to none of them we'll wait a second so tricky Nick doesn't have to be held accountable because mr. Tumnus yet does all the dirty work for him well I guess we know what kind of goat Krampus is a scapegoat just a little the words fat tears and satirical and obviously I thought that would be very funny for our next subject will be keeping things chilly and traveling north grill over gorilla gorilla gorillas at gorilla gorilla grill one no girl girl is a girl girl hey don't let the internet have that close but neither of those at all Rilla the Christmas witch of Iceland has all the hallmarks of your traditional Christmas carnivore the name gorilla when translated alludes to the Danish idiom for growler which I mean yeah spot-on Google told me that grill was Icelandic for Bugatti to quote Terry gunnel the head of the folkloristic department at the University of Iceland ahem you don't mess with gorilla short but to the point some poems depict her as a troll others an okra sore a giant s which is problematic because those are very different pages in the monster manual and require their own strategies regardless gorilla is known to judge children and punish them accordingly if you've been naughty you get thrown into a sack taken to her cave and eaten a system that by this point in our list falls under the if it ain't broke don't fix it mantra however what makes gorillas interesting is that she doesn't really have a rewards program quite the opposite in fact if gorillas willing your behavior has been deemed good enough this year then you just sort of don't see her which is fine but that creates an issue when considering countermeasures for starters if she never visits you when you're good then we won't be able to lure her into a false sense of security like we could other members of this list meeting that the only guerrilla we can encounter is one who's primed and ready for combat hypothetically you could take the fight to her home in the lava fields of Danube or shear which this time Google translated to mean dark cities which is fine and not terrifying only problem is that Dimmu Borgir is also the home of leper Ludi third husband a guerrilla there are times the charm i suppose that or she was bloated after her first two servings of husband she ate them that shouldn't be surprising at this point but i thought it was better to clarify la peluda isn't known to venture out much not even for a romantic session of kidnapping some kids napping instead having more of a reputation for being lazy and a bit of a homebody that doesn't make us friends so if you're looking to challenge guerrilla you have one of two options be naughty for a year and wait for her to approach you in your own home or take the battle to her and her husband within their stomping grounds of demi Borgia also they have 13 sons and a demon cat are you getting all this down because it's going to get crazier alright so let's try to get through this one quick because we could be here all night otherwise guerrillas 13 sons or a group of pranksters known as the Yule Lads and operate throughout the month of December appearing in the 12 nights leading to Christmas morning and leaving one by one over another 13 days so you'll likely hear about their shenanigans between December 12th all the way up until the 6th of January the first to arrive is stick Josh tour known to tease and ferment sheep also he has peg legs I guess sometimes the sheep fight back next we have gilja Gor who likes to hide in gullies and steal cow's milk speaking of these we have blue gaga here basically the lad that spies through windows to case the joint before robbing it Buick rockier steals sausages from the rafters Kepler uses a hook to take any and all meat he can find also stood for a short lad who likes to steal pie crusts plot Tosca Phil likes to take leftovers from pots and thrusts like ER who steal spoons to lick ask a slight Gator we'll wait under beds in the hopes that someone may leave a bowl next to it to snag cutest kitty er likes to slam doors because he's fun like that get to fitter is more into sniffing doors with his unreasonably large nose but only so that he could locate leaf bread kept testing cute steals candles because this was back when candles were made of tallow in word technically edible also they're skewed c'mere he likes yogurt I'm inclined to believe he's stolen the yogurt but honestly there's nothing that explicitly states that the yogurt isn't his he might just really like yogurt is the thing suffice it to say the Yule Lads were primarily focused on getting their grub on say for a couple of them who as far as I can tell britches jerks for the sake of it generally speaking though I'd rather a visit from them than their parents but none of them compared to it may possibly be the most terrifying creature evolved Yola Catherine also known as the Yule cat Yola Catherine is a giant cat and companion to the guerrilla clan much like their fur mama Yola Cooper and also judges children and punishes them accordingly no okay you better not be about to say that that cat eats people if they've been bad I can't handle that oh goodness no not at all yeah I was worried that maybe they hate people who aren't wearing the latest fashion I'm sorry I oh I really should have started with that yeah it turns out that you'll Akutan isn't terribly concerned with whether or not you've been naughty or nice rather they only seem to be worried about whether or not your wardrobe is fresh if children were wearing last year's cardigan during the present holiday they might find themselves taking part in a different kind of Fancy Feast this is particularly terrifying because fashion is not only subjective but ignorant to the times styles come back in a rotation constantly I really expect that you'll Akutan is capable of constantly keeping up to date with the current trends they're a cat oh that reminds me what's this presents precautionary measures I already know you're good people so that deals with Krampus but I'm not entirely sure if your clothes are new ah you should you know I started this video confused and threatened by mythical creatures who judged whether we were naughty or nice but maybe I was thinking too hard about it maybe being naughty or nice or just things we know that might have been enough for st. Nicholas back then it feels enough for me now enough to I don't know maybe turn off the panic room button [Music] put the shirt on now [Music]

Channel: Brew

Views: 499,774

Rating: 4.93259 out of 5

Keywords: santa, santa claus, santa claus history, santa claus different countries, santa claus countries, santa claus russia, santa claus iceland, santa claus usa, investigate, investigation, mysteries solved, mysteries unsolved, unsolved, unsolved mysteries, unsolved cases, solved cases, unsolved cases solved, brew, santa looks like, what santa looks like, what santa claus looks like, what does santa look like, what does santa claus look like

Id: a_GXc35uROY

Length: 13min 1sec (781 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 21 2019