Schwarze Peder? (black peter)

[cassie121]

Has anyone heard of this? My German teacher told the class that in parts of Germany the children are told that a evil counterpart of santa so to speak is chained to him and when they come across the home of a bad child black peter is released by santa to whip the bad children with branches..Is my teacher crazy or is this true?

 

[soda]

I'm from switzerland and what I know is that there is some kind of counter part with santa. he's called "schmutzli" or "knecht ruprecht". so your teacher is right. he's also right with the branches.

but....
you must know that santa comes at dec 6th and brings peanuts, chocolate and tangerines.
dec 24th, respectively dec 25th the "christkind" something like a christmas angel brings the gifts for the children, not santa as it is in the US.

 

[Ainuhina]

at least in Austria we have a story like that

Saint Nick (der Nikolaus) comes on the 5th of December in the evening and brings gifts to the nice kids...and the bad ones get whipped by the "Krampus" and if they have been really bad he takes them with him

here's a page where you can find out all about the Krampus

and a picture

be blessed <><

 

[schwarzes_schaf]

isn't schwarzer peter a card game?

 

[Ainuhina]

yep...there's a card game too loved to play it when I was a child

 

[*Soulwings*]

Has anyone heard of this? My German teacher told the class that in parts of Germany the children are told that a evil counterpart of santa so to speak is chained to him and when they come across the home of a bad child black peter is released by santa to whip the bad children with branches..Is my teacher crazy or is this true?

In the Netherlands we have a counter of Santa called Sinterklaas, although he ain't evil. Sinterklaas has 'zwarte pieten' (Dutch version of Schwarze Peder), which are much like Santa's elves. I heard that zwarte pieten will slap you with branches, or something like it, if you've been bad.

Maybe your teacher got mixed up with the Netherlands?

 

[*Soulwings*]

Ainuhina,

Do the black peters really look as scary as in that photo down in Austria ??

 

[Ainuhina]

yep...and normally they only come out during the night - that makes them even scarier

 

[bornagain91]

Knecht Rupecht accompanies Saint Nicholas as his duty is to punish naughty children by whipping them with willow branches. Schwartzer Peter on the other hand is Black Jack a card game. Hope this helps you.