{"id":5905,"date":"2014-12-22T18:06:09","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T18:06:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/?p=5905"},"modified":"2017-11-16T13:17:40","modified_gmt":"2017-11-16T13:17:40","slug":"der-nikolaus-kommt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/der-nikolaus-kommt\/","title":{"rendered":"Der Nikolaus Kommt"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of December, I was informed that on the 5th<\/sup> of December Nikolaus<\/strong> (St Nicholas) would come in the night and fill children\u2019s shoes with presents. This tradition is carried out in parts of Germany, Holland, Austria, Italy and Switzerland amongst others. To me this sounded a lot like Christmas, and it is indeed very similar \u2013 here\u2019s a look at the tradition of der Nikolaus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Who is St Nicholas?<\/span><\/p>\n

St Nicholas was born in the third century in a village called Patara \u2013 the village was in that time part of Greece but has now changed to Turkey. St Nicholas was a Christian who helped the poor by giving them money and food. Some stories say he threw the money\/food through a window which landed in the shoes from a poor family \u2013 hence why the tradition is to fill children\u2019s shoe with presents. St Nicholas died on 6th<\/sup> December, making St Nicholas\u2019s Day a remembrance for him.<\/p>\n

Throughout the years St Nicholas turned into Santa Claus. This happened when the Dutch brought the tradition over to America where they took the Dutch word for St Nicholas \u201cSinterklaas\u201d and turned it into \u201cSanta Claus\u201d. Although St Nicholas is seen as Santa Claus in many countries, in Germany St Nicholas remains the same as he originally was, and also remains to give gifts on the night of the 5th<\/sup> of December \u2013 instead of the 24th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n

\"Santa\"<\/a>

Chocolate Santa Claus. Own photo.<\/p><\/div>\n

Der Krampus<\/span><\/p>\n

Nikolaus <\/strong>doesn\u2019t come alone on the night of the 5th<\/sup> December, he brings der Krampus <\/strong>along. This tradition belongs to areas around the Alps for example: Southern Bavaria, Austria and Romania among others. Unlike Nikolaus, <\/strong>the Krampus<\/strong> doesn\u2019t bring any gifts; instead he is there to punish\/take away any b\u00f6se kinder <\/strong>(naughty children) that didn\u2019t behave that year. On the 5th<\/sup> of December some places hold the tradition of the Krampuslauf<\/strong> (literally translated to \u201cKrampus run\u201d), in which people dress up as the Krampus<\/strong> and walk along the streets in the evening, sometimes accompanied by St Nicholas.<\/p>\n

The Krampus<\/strong> is half goat, half demon and symbolises the devil. He usually carries chains and bells with him, and a bundle of branches used to hit children with.<\/p>\n

So if you were good all year long then Nikolaus<\/strong> will bring you presents \u2013 but unlike the Christkind <\/strong>(literally translates to Christchild) he brings very specific presents.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a list of what he would bring:<\/p>\n

N\u00fcsse: <\/strong>Nuts<\/p>\n

Mandarine: <\/strong>Mandarins<\/p>\n

\u00c4pfel:\u00a0<\/strong>Apples \u2013 in Germany you can buy special \u201eNikolaus \u00c4pfel\u201d<\/strong>, they are red, look perfect\u00a0and are small enough to fit in a shoe!<\/p>\n

Lebkuchen: <\/strong>A traditional German biscuit which is similar to gingerbread.<\/p>\n

Spekulatius:\u00a0<\/strong>Another Christmas biscuit (which originally comes from Holland)<\/p>\n

Schokolade: <\/strong>Chocolate – often a chocolate\u00a0Santa Claus\/Nikolaus<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"I

I got my first ever Nikolaus present this year. Own photo<\/p><\/div>\n

The presents reflect back to St Nicholas feeding the poor, and so the children are given healthier\u00a0food as well as\u00a0sweets and chocolate. Although these presents are often seen in children\u2019s shoes, nowadays there are also \u201cmodern presents\u201d such as toys, games, clothes etc.<\/p>\n

I really like this ongoing tradition, I find that sometimes we lose the meaning of our celebrations and forget why we even celebrate in the first place! I hope you enjoyed the story of Nikolaus<\/strong> and that it made you a little bit more excited for Christmas!<\/p>\n

Ich wunsche Euch allen frohe Weihnachten,<\/strong><\/p>\n

(I wish you all a merry Christmas,)<\/p>\n

Larissa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

At the beginning of December, I was informed that on the 5th of December Nikolaus (St Nicholas) would come in the night and fill children\u2019s shoes with presents. This tradition is carried out in parts of Germany, Holland, Austria, Italy and Switzerland amongst others. To me this sounded a lot like Christmas, and it is…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":5910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[117692,8883,8426,374384,1193],"class_list":["post-5905","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-holidays","tag-bavaria","tag-german-history","tag-germany","tag-nikolaus","tag-presents"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/127"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5905"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9140,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5905\/revisions\/9140"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/german\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}