Belsnickel

Title: Belsnickel

General Information about Item:

  • Customary Folklore: Legend
  • German
  • Germany

Informant Data:

  • Hendric Tronsson is a Dartmouth 20 who grew up in Berlin before coming to school at Dartmouth.

Contextual Data:

  • Social Context: Almost everyone who celebrates Christmas has a Christmas story that they believe in. These are typically told to children around the holiday times in order to create a festive mood and make everyone excited for Christmas. As the kids grow up, they begin to lose their belief in these legends because they start to realize that there parents were the source of the gifts.       However these legends remain a large source of the classic Christmas symbols and festive decorations for all ages even though the legends are no longer believed to be true.
  • Cultural Context: The “Father Christmas” figure varies greatly between different cultures – changing primarily due to religious and geographical differences. In the United States it is typically Santa, though people from other cultures who have parents from other cultures may also believe in a different legend.

Item:

  • Hendric has multiple Christmas legends but the one that he shared with us was the Belsnickel. The Belsnickel is a man that wears furs all around and is a companion of St. Nicholas. This figure also delivers presents to kids around the holidays.

Collector’s Name: Alec Vaules

Tags/Keywords:

  • Christmas, Krampus, Germany, Tradition, Legend

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *