December 21, 2015 • 41 mins
Krampus has become really popular in recent years, but there are many holiday characters from various cultures around the world that all have fascinating histories. For example, Italy's La Befana and the Netherlands version of St. Nick, Sinterklaas. Read the show notes here.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Tracy. We have had
a lot of request to talk about Crampas lately, we
have this year, and it's super cool, but he's become
(00:22):
really high profile, so lots of people already do know
a good bit about him. We are going to honor
those requests and we're still going to talk about Crampas
in this episode, but we're also going to talk about
some other non Santa holiday entities that are or have
been popular in various cultures at one time or another.
And while I want to talk about the Santa Bot
from Futurama, that is not really a cultural tradition. Uh.
(00:44):
Anybody who watches Futurama knows that it's a delight in
that particular robot as a killer. Uh. Same goes for
the ice Cream Bunny and the Martians that Santa Claus
battled in that one film, and the Heat Miser and
any of the ones from your childhood shows that you loved,
like those are all great characters anyway, So we are
not talking about any of those, even though they're wonderful.
We're looking at actual, actual, historically based cultural traditions here,
(01:07):
and because there were so many of these figures where
we can't do it all in one part, so we're
gonna have two parts on this one. Today we're covering three,
and then there will be several more in the next
episode for a nice holiday week of holiday characters from
around the world. Yeah, it's a little on the peppi
your side, not so much with the sadness, not so
(01:28):
much with My Solder Children episode or last year's on
the Christmas Tree Ship, which was just crushing. So unless
you've just not been in front of the television or
the computer or anything, you've probably heard about Crampas. He's
a horn terrifying creature that puts a much more sinister
spin on Christmas than St. Nicholas, for sure. Yeah. Uh,
(01:53):
And now Crampus has become so popular that there are
parades in cities throughout Europe and the US every year.
He's really caught on. Atlanta has a Crampus parade every year. Uh.
And this year there is even a movie, which I
think is part of the reason so many people have
been emailing us about it and the rise in popularity
of Grampus in the US is often credited to the
(02:13):
desire for an antidote to the commercialization of Christmas, but
most people, particularly non Europeans, do not seem to know
his actual origin story. They know what he is, they
don't really have a sense of the background. So Crampus
and Austrian culture is sort of the assistant to St. Nicholas.
So whereas St. Nick is the harbinger of good tidings
(02:36):
and gifts who comes on December six, Crampus is the
holiday visitor you're a lot more likely to get if
you have been ill behaved. He comes on the night
of December five, which is compass knocked. Yes. And in
case anyone is confused about the December sixth thing not
being December twenty, the day we celebrate Christmas, that is
(02:56):
the feast of St. Nicholas normally, so not everyone moves
it to that Saturnalia spot on the uh. Crampas is
a punisher. He carries sticks to beat unruly children, and
the really bad children gets stuffed in his sack. Uh.
It's sort of the ultimate be good or else mythology. UH.
In terms of like holiday threats to keep kids in line.
(03:19):
Those kids that are in the sack, they get dragged
back to Crampus's lair, where they are tortured or eaten
or both. So much bigger threat than you'll get coal
in your story. Coal is not delightful, but being beaten
and then consumed by a horrible beast is a little
more terrifying. He didn't start out as a Christmas creature
at all, though his origin is actually Norse. He's the
(03:40):
son of Hell, the female god of the underworld. That
means Crampas's grandfather is Loki. He's traditionally part of a
pre Germanic pagan tradition in Austria, and that name Crampus,
of course, also has nothing to do with Christmas. Is
a sidebar on that name. I highly recommend everyone to
go searching, and perhaps will link to it in our
show notes for the the clip of Kristoph Vaults on
(04:06):
Jimmy Fallon describing what Crampus is. No one says anything
better than Christoph Vults to begin with, and when he
talks about this, there's both delight and glee, and he
takes a certain, uh real pleasure, it seems, in telling
this tale, and particularly saying the word Crampus, So I
highly recommend it. You say, it's so much more beautifully
(04:26):
than I'd even like Crampus, only because I watched Christoph
Vults do it thirty two times yesterday, because it is
charming and I just adore him. So that name is
derived from the German word for claw, which is cramping,
And it's easy to see why that moniker would be
chosen when you look at Crampus, as Tracy mentioned, he's
got horns, he's hairy, those horns are massive, and he
(04:50):
has this terrifying demon face, and he's sort of like
a big walking claw ready to snatch children. This whole
demonic presence was almost as undoing. In the twelfth century.
Crampus and his demon face were deemed a little too
devilish for the Catholic Church, and that organization attempted to
ban Crampus and all activities related to him. But instead
(05:12):
of doing away with Crampas, I've given up all attempts
that saying it the way Hollydas people just looped him
into the celebration of St. Nicholas on December six instead. Yeah,
I mean, it certainly didn't happen magically and quickly like that.
But it it is sort of a co mingling of
the two cultural traditions to come up with this this
weird marriage. And from there the cramp the Crampas tradition
(05:36):
grew and became more and more part of winter holiday tradition.
So Crampas knocked parades became popular December fifth events, with
many young men donning the guys of the scary but
fun punisher of bad children to walk the streets menacingly.
I read one report that was basically like, Yeah, these
guys get together in their first suits, they do a
few shots, get a little drunk, and then they put
(05:58):
on their masks and their horns and they just run
through the streets sort of playfully terrifying people like they
messed with everybody. That I used my power of editorial
director to nicely ask Robert Lamb, that's stuff to blow
your mind. Uh, if he could write an article about
crampas first this year, And he did um And one
of the things that he wrote about is that there's
(06:18):
a fine line sometimes between like gleeful mischief and deliberately
horrifying small children. So he was once again under fire
in the nineteen thirties when the Christian Social Party outlawed
him following the Austrian Civil War once again because it's
the saying he's the personification of evil. By that point,
Crampus would become a lot more popular than St. Nick himself,
(06:41):
which is also something that that Robert talks about in
his article about how a lot of times in parades
that include both sat Nick and and Crampus, they're like
vastly outnumbered. They are way more Crampuses than St. Nick's. Yeah,
and for much of the twentieth century, uh, there were,
you know, various other affections that have kind of tried
(07:02):
to sweep him under the rug a little bit. But
so he was on the d L. He really wasn't
a big part of holiday celebrations for a while. But
then in the late twentieth century that tradition was really revived.
It wasn't like it ever completely went away, but it
really got like a big resurgence of interest and it
continues to gain steam. But even in the modern era,
Carampus has been targeted for the trauma that some parents
(07:23):
believe that he caused to children. Child psychologist named Max
Friederick raised some concerns about the scares that Crampus gave
back in two thousand and six, and then more recently
over the last couple of years, as Austria welcome Syrian
and Iraqi refree refugees, the country has sort of made
efforts to educate the newcomers um about what this scary
(07:46):
seeming beast is all about and now it's all in fun. Yeah,
there's really sort of a little bit of an image clarification.
It's not so much a makeover as just community like
good pr explaining like no, no, no, this you are
not actually going to get stolen away because I can
imagine a child fleeing a situation and going somewhere and
then at this time of year that's their introduction to
(08:08):
a new culture like that would be horrified by the
way you're going to be kidnapped and eaton. So they've
they've really done a lot of outreach to try to
explain like no, no, this is a tradition and it's
all in fun and everyone is safe and there will
be candy. It just looks a little scary, so, uh,
just kind of a good way to manage something like that,
I think, and hopefully that's been effective. Uh, We're going
to talk next about a fun Italian figure that I
(08:31):
really love that we're going to have a quick word
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And now we'll hop back into our story. So next
we're going to talk about Laba Fauna Italy was a
wonderful witchy lady in its winter holiday traditions. This is
an old hag named la bea fauna who visits riding
a broom on the night of January five and in
the wee hours of January six, so at Epiphany, that is,
(10:43):
in Christian religious terms, the day that commemorates when the
magi got to see you weren't Christ child, and thus
that was the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. But
on first glance, particularly for those of us that did
not grow up with Laba fauna and she's sometimes also
just called fauna, she doesn't really seem to fit any
of the traditional religious mythology, but her name is infected
(11:06):
derivation of the word epifania, which is the Italian word
for epiphany, and in many ways she has a lot
in common with Santa Claus. So Italian children right but
right Buffana letters in the weeks leading up to her visit,
letting her know what's on their wish lists to ensure
that she graces them with gifts instead of coal. They're
also in their best behavior. Families leave out a glass
(11:29):
of wine and some sausage and broccoli for a La
Bafana when they go to bed on January five. I
would be down with that meal. Whine shuffling children hang
stockings for her to fill, and she often comes in
through the chimney, so there's a lot of parallels there. Yeah,
it makes me laugh that you thought that was a
good meal, because one of the writers that was writing
about this tradition was saying, like, that's a much healthier,
(11:52):
better option than what Santa usually gets breaks wine at
every house. I don't know that you could continue that claim,
but well, it depends on how out how heavy that sausage, right,
balance in all things, But if you're only eating cookies
and milk all night, that's kind of a recipe for
a number of medical issues. And while this may all
(12:12):
seem distant, as I kind of mentioned earlier, from the
story of Christ's birth, there's actually Italian in the mythology.
So Lava Fauna, according to legend, was a widow who
had also lost her child, living alone in the Italian
hillside when Jesus was born, but Fauna saw the bright
light in the sky that's associated in Christianity with the
(12:33):
birth of Christ, so the Star of Bethlehem, and initially
she ignored this light, but then the three Wise Men
stopped by her house on their journey to find the
newborn son. Of God, and after enjoying her hospitality, they
invited her to come along with them. Initially, she declined
to come along, but then she reconsidered after they left
and decided that because she loved children, she would catch
(12:54):
up to the wise men and travel along with them
after all, and carrying some baked and her broom, which
she was bringing in case. Mary wanted her to help
out by tidying up the major but Fanna left her
home but she could not find the wise men. She
was trying to catch up to them, but she couldn't
and she became lost. And angels appeared in some tellings
(13:17):
of the story when she was just near exhaustion, and
they used magic to enchant Baffauna's broom so that she
could ride it. And so the kindly old woman continued
her search, riding her broom for the baby Jesus. She
never found him, which made me so sad, But her
search continues, and every epiphany she rides a broom looking
for the child. And because she loves all children, she
(13:39):
leaves gifts for all that she visits, and traditionally the
gifts that she leaves are reminders of the story of Jesus.
There are some other variations on the Labba Funa story.
If you read various accounts, including ways that her child
or children, there's again as a mythology, there's some details
that shift a lot, uh, including the ways that her
offspring died and and so her intent is actually to
(14:01):
give her deceased kids belongings to Mary's newborn Uh. But
though all of these stories center on Laba Fauna deciding
to go see the infant Christ, in reality her roots
are in paganism, which is a case for many traditions. Yes,
and some old pagan rituals, an elderly woman would be
burned in the center of a town to symbolize the
(14:23):
end of one year and the beginning of another. Celtic
ceremonies in the Alps involved wicker puppets similarly burned to
represent the death of the old and the restoration and
renewal of the new year, and European folklore in various
locations has considered the time between Christmas and the Epiphany
as it kind of merged uh the Christianity along with
(14:46):
their their pagan rituals, as sort of a time of
which is in magic, with the Epiphany considered the most
magical night of the year. So Bafana ties into this
idea of magic overlapping uh and the idea of renewal
in the new years. So if you did the ven
diagram of Christianity and Paganism, that's kind of right where
Laba Fauna lands. She's further linked to the new year
(15:08):
in her association with the ancient Roman goddess of the
new year Strina, also seen as Strenia and Strenua, and
this also provides kind of an alternate origin straight to
her her name as instead being rooted in the word
but Strina, which were gifts that were linked to that goddess.
So yeah, I love her. I love when you see
(15:29):
pictures of of women dressed as Befauna during Christmas celebrations
in Italy because I love witchy things anyway, like this,
The the iconography of the classic witch is one that
I have been in love with since I was a child.
So to kind of ploff that in the middle of
Christmas is like, that is my kind of Christmas. I
love her sweetness to it. I knew nothing about this
(15:50):
until you told me, and I was like that, but no,
I love that. That's the best idea it's very sweet.
It's um as it's been adopted and evolved, it's become
this nice grand motherly figure that you know, cares about
kids and comes with candy and kind of love. I
love it. Next we are going to talk about center Class,
and my first introduction to center Class was actually through
(16:13):
my husband, who is not Dutch, but for a while
he worked for a weather company that was doing whether
it's like the Weather Channel but for the Netherlands at
the time, I don't think it exists anymore, and they
had to do center Clause coverage around the holidays. So
he was the first person that told me this story,
and some elements of it left me agog did they
(16:33):
Did they track center Claus like Norad track Santa? They did, uh,
But because he hangs around for a lot longer, it
was a much lengthier tracking situation than a one night deal. So,
as we just alluded to, the Netherlands twist on St.
Nicholas is called center Class and comes with some baggage
(16:53):
which we will talk about. But first we are going
to give more of a rundown of the center Class tradition.
So while December six is the main event for center Class,
just as for St. Nicholas. In other cultures, his holiday
journey starts well before that in November. So traditionally on
a morning in mid November, Center Claus arrives usually in
(17:14):
Amsterdam is the big one via steamboat. He comes from Spain.
And for this large one in Amsterdam, he normally appears
on the Amstelle River at the docks and docks a
little while later, so they take time. They cover him
coming up the river in his steamboat and he's then
greeted by a public official, usually such as the mayor,
and then Center Class mon mounts a white or sometimes
(17:36):
gray horse to parade through the city and that how
he comes from Spain. Like I mean, this is like
a story that a child is telling me. It's like
a penny cartoon, you remember those from Phewous playouts. It is.
So the parade normally starts a little afternoon and it
takes a couple of hours traveling through the city. In
addition to Center Class, there are brass bands, floats, clowns
(18:00):
and peten peton or Center classes helpers and we're coming
back to them in a little bit. At the end
of the parade, Center Class addresses the children and parents
of the Netherlands and they're often smaller Center Class parades
held all over the Netherlands, and this mid November arrival
is actually the start of Center Class season. So from
(18:21):
this point until December six, Center Class and all his
helpers travel throughout the Netherlands. They visit schools and hospitals,
they do some charity work. They also keep an eye
out to check on the behavior of children, even listening
at chimneys to see how kids are behaving when they
can't see Center Claus watching. And during this time, children
leave shoes out, often accompanied by carrots or hay for
(18:43):
Center Claus's horse, in the hopes that the Peton will
leave them candy, ginger, biscuits, oranges and small gifts in
their shoes, and Center Claus and the Peton will sometimes
visit houses multiple times during this November to December six period,
so kids will sometimes get like little small gifts during
that time multiple times, and then the big event is
(19:03):
still the sixth, though this elongated celebration of Center Class
started in the nineteen thirties. Before that, the Dutch st
Nick simply came in on December six to bring gifts,
but now there's a whole shopping and celebrating block of
the calendar that's heralded by this November arrival of Center Class.
So it's not entirely unlike Thanksgiving signaling the official start
(19:27):
of the holiday shopping season in the US, even though
some places put that more in like August. Now. We
talked about that on our previous podcast that we used
to host, the other called Pop Stuff Holiday Creek. We
did I'm the only person that it doesn't bother apparently,
and I had to laugh. It's one of those things too.
(19:47):
Again I will throw my friends under the bus. But
when you're telling people things that you're working on and
they respond in ways for their like that's weird, that's
just commercialism to have Center Class come in November, And
I'm like, do you not watch the Macy's things like
don't don't think of it, like that's strange, and other
(20:08):
just look at parallel to what we all experience. So
then after at the end of this season, on the
night of December five, Center Claus rides his horse throughout
the country, delivering gifts and treats, sometimes a little uh
sugar retreats in burlap sacks, but that is for the
good children. The bad children get carted away by the
peton and taken to Spain. What a terrible fate. I'm thinking, like,
(20:32):
maybe I'm bad. I get a vacation. And just as St.
Nicholas has Crampas has crampus in Austria Center, Claus has
a counterpart who deals with unruly children, and that is
where the baggage that we mentioned earlier comes in. We're
going to talk about that baggage and some of the
battles waging culturally around it, right after we have a
(20:53):
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(22:40):
and now we'll get back to our story. So back
to the peten the helper's specifically a helper named Varta Pete.
Varta Pete translates to Black Peter, and he and the
other Peton in these uh center class celebrations often appear
in blackface. Tradition of the center class parade and his
(23:02):
Moorish slave, Black Pete started in the late eighteen hundreds,
and at that time black face would not have really
raised people's eyebrows. And for a long time, it kind
of a surprisingly long time, really, it continued not to
raise anyone's eyebrows. The solidification of this center Clous story
is sometimes credited to a book that was published in
eighteen fifties, so a little before this really got a
(23:24):
big swell in the late eighteen hundreds. In that book
is titled St. Nicholas and His Servant, and it's written
by Jan Shankman. And this is the first known writing
that clearly outlines all of the traditions of center Claus,
including that steamboat and the horse riding, and of course
Black Peter. And while there are some mentions of center
Claus in earlier literature that mentioned a servant of color
(23:45):
accompanying him, this is really when the story of a
Moorish slave was written into the narrative in clear terms
that we know of. But even though the story of St.
Nick and his servant was published in the mid eighteen hundreds,
the mythology was still evolving into the twentieth century. Uh
The name, for example, was not uniform for some time,
(24:08):
and written accounts naming St. Nicholas servant include all kinds
of different names. Sometimes he was just named Yawn or Pete,
which were common servant names. In nineteen eleven, a picture
book was published with some of the most popular images
of St. Nick's dark skinned slave dressed in seventeenth century garb,
and at this point there was just one Pete. So
(24:29):
we've mentioned that he comes a lot of times in
parades with Peton, with many of them, but at this
point there was just the one in the narrative. By
the nineteen twenties, this portrayal was really cemented in the
cultural consciousness, and part of the problem that people point
to later on is that he was really portrayed as
a half wit. He only spoke broken Dutch, and he
(24:50):
wasn't really very bright at all. Far too, Pete evolved further,
eventually becoming less of a buffoon and more lovable, although
he was still portrayed as a slave or servant to
center class, and some characterizations of him indicated that his
black skin was actually the result of sit coming from
going down chimneys and not a difference in his race. However,
(25:12):
he had kinky he still had kinky, curly hair, and
his clothes were clean despite of this, despite the that
was purportedly blackening his skin. Yeah, if you look at
picture of him even now, it's like looking at sort
of standard black face that we've seen throughout the years,
where you know, the lips are drawn very big in red,
and then the skin is obviously painted a very even
(25:35):
tone and the curly wig. It's clearly a heavy exaggeration
of racist stereotypes, is how you would describe that in
a center completely uh zwarta Pete went from being just
the one servant to a whole horde of peton over
the years, and people have been dressing in black face
to disguise themselves as peten and celebrate the winter holidays
(25:57):
for decades. Like many people will dress up at the
pete and go out party. Uh. During this this stretch
of time and Swart Peton has appeared on postcards and
other memorabilia, and these pets has really been a well
loved part of the festivities. Until nine that's the first
(26:18):
time on record that's someone This was a woman named
mc grin. Bauer brought up the idea that Zwarte Pete
was inappropriate, pointing out that while slavery had long been
abolished in the Netherlands center classes, companion was still being
represented as a slave. And it really did take a
little while for a more widespread discussion about the black
(26:39):
faced zore to Pete to happen. And even so, this
is an issue that continues to the moment we are
recording this in December, to be hotly debated has literally yesterday. Yeah,
I mean, if you look at our show notes this time,
you will see things that are coming out sort of
right here at the beginning of December when we're recording.
So while some claim that the image of Pete is
(27:01):
harmless and in good fun, many others have cried foul
and said that it's flat out racism in the battle
between those who wish to hold onto this tradition and
something that they really think of quite lovingly from their
childhood and those who wish to do away with the
symbol and the inherent negative messages attached to it. Really
rages on. And I'm not downplaying, I'm not I'm not
(27:22):
exaggerating when I say it rages on. People are very
angry on both sides of this equation, definite, both sides. Anger.
Protests against Zwart Pete have really grown in recent years,
and in the u N Human Rights Commission looked at
those of our to Pete issue. The u N HRC
Committee Chair Verene Shepherd of Jamaica made a statement before
(27:44):
the committee met saying that quote this is a throwback
to slavery and that in the twenty one century this
practice should stop. Additionally, an application filed by the St.
Nicholas Society of the Netherlands to have Center Clouds included
on the UNESCO List of in Agible Heritage was returned
to them. Uh it was denied for the moment until
(28:04):
something could be done about this problem of Zante Pete.
There has perhaps surprisingly been huge pushback in the Netherlands
and many continue to include Artapee and their celebrations. Just
a few weeks ago, the Dutch Embassy in Camera Australia
held a center class parade with a full complement of
black faced attendance. Yeah, that brought up a lot of
(28:28):
news coverage and again anger on both sides. People really
defend their desire to include this thing that they loved
when they were a kid, and to them it's a
character they loved. They aren't really willing to see the
other side. I don't know how to fix it. Everybody
has this. This is a battle we fight in the
US all the time of tradition versus like changing social values. Well,
(28:53):
and the I actually was really interested to learn about
this in the outline because like the United States history
has a as to my knowledge, a much more lengthy
and and deep history of minstrel shows that had characters
in black face that came along like during the Civil
(29:14):
War and afterwards, and we're deeply offensive and like I
have seen people say, well, you can't apply things from
American culture to these other cultures and realizing that that's
not what's happening here. Yeah, what's happening here. Yeah, it's
it's very fascinating. And what's really interesting is they're taking
(29:37):
sort of an interesting approach. There are some some interesting
efforts being made to try to soften the black Peter
issue and transition the character to a less offensive version,
but still find a way to include this part of
holiday traditions that so many people love and they're not
quite ready to part with so uh. Pets, for example
(29:58):
in Amsterdam have been encourage that if they are going
to do the black face, to have smaller lips, to
not be quite the level of caricature racial stereotyping that
it has been. They're not allowed to wear gold earrings,
and they're not supposed to be doing those curly haired wigs.
Hair should be softer. And an additional transformation, uh, including
the painting of peats in many colors, which they tried
(30:20):
at one point to do this mythology where they the
peats were coming to the US in one story and
they passed through a rainbow and it colored them all
different colors, and a lot of people hated it and
got really mad about it. Um, But they're trying to
incorporate that and suggest that maybe we should do other
colors and that way it's still this interesting, colorful character.
And I use that in the not racially loaded sense,
(30:42):
colorful character uh that you can still love and it's
still similar to what you had when you were a kid,
but it is not kind of connected to all of
those racial issues that it currently has, So that plan
to change the peats to different colors and continue to
kind of switch up the image slowly and transition. It
(31:02):
is expected to be integrated into celebrations in Amsterdam over
the course of the next several years. The center class
legend dates back to the fourth century, when Nicholas, the
Bishop of Mira came to came from modern day Turkey,
and there's some fuzziness about how exactly center Claus ended
up making his home in Spain. The most likely story
(31:23):
is that when Spain ruled land in the Netherlands in
the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the lore shifted to make
this uh most benevolent holiday figure to become a son
of Spain. And now I kind of put that bit
at the end because it seems like, you know, we're
once again in an evolution of center Claus, at least
(31:44):
in terms of his relationship with his now friend rather
than slave. That's another shift that's happened. He's a friend
of center Claus, he's not his servant. But we're gonna
be watching history unfold in real time in the coming
years around what's gonna and we'll see what happens. As
every culture of als, there are going to be elements
of iconography and much loved things that are no longer
(32:05):
really appropriate. But there's that argument always of you don't
want to throw everything out of a tradition because some
people still love it and it has a good meaning
to them. But at the same time, you can't just
let things stay forever stagnating something that is maybe not
so great well, And a lot of depictions that I
(32:25):
have seen of Zartepete remind me of salt shakers you
would find in an antique store that are from the
forties that are of fancies today, and like you could
have that in a museum in in a display that
(32:48):
talks about like the cultural signifiers of slavery and how
they came to be part of this this everyday life.
For a lot of people, you would not want to
have that on your dinner table if you were, uh,
you know, progressively minded person. Yeah. Yeah, So, like I said,
(33:09):
we get to kind of watch history unfold before us,
because while it's happening in the present day, this will
be a history that people talk about for a long time,
I imagine, because it is an interesting example of how
a culture is trying to find a way to deal
with this clash of of tradition and modern values. So
from that point of view, I'm excited about it, just
(33:29):
kind of watching how it's going to play out. I
kind of wish we had that listener mail about about
the college mascot being the Rebels. Oh yeah, and there
are several more interesting characters that are celebrated as part
of winter holidays around the world, and we are going
to talk about those, but not this time. So next
time around there will be more holiday fun because there
(33:51):
are more characters to talk about. Some of them are
delightfully kookie. But first I have listener mail. I have
three pieces of listener mail trade see Okay, I know
that might sound extreme, but I feel bad because we
get a day sometimes and we only read two a week,
and I feel bad because there are lots of good
ones that don't always get place they have. So I
(34:12):
have four or five things in my inbox that are
things that where I want to answer that. And now
the thing that someone has asked was asking about has passed. Yeah,
I'm going to go on a road trip? Do you
have suggestions for this place that I'm going? And I'll be, oh, yeah,
I want to answer that, and then oh, that person's
road trip is gone. I feel slightly better knowing that
(34:34):
happens to YouTube in my head. You never dropped that ball,
But I feel like I just dropped the ball on
the ground and end up somewhere else. Then I'm embarrassed,
and sometimes I write, I'm like, I'm so sorry I
didn't send you any ideas before. We're not we always
say this, We're not ignoring anybody on purpose. There's just
there is definitely a volume to human time ratios that's
(34:56):
a little bit difficult to navigate. Me read all of them.
We read all of them so much for sending email.
We do read all of them. Yeah, so for this one, uh,
like I said, I have three none, No, none of
them are terribly long. The first one is from our
listener Matt, and he is writing about our Declaration of
Sentiments episode and he says, Dear Holly and Tracy, I'm
a long time listener and a huge fan. I honestly
(35:18):
think I learned more from the podcast than when I
learned than what I learned in my u S History class.
I'm currently a junior in high school. I'm writing in
regards to your most recent episode, The Road to the
Declaration of Sentiments. You mentioned Lucretia Mott, and I squealed
with joy as you mentioned she attended and later worked
at Nine Partners Boarding School. Well, here I am over
a hundred and fifty years later, attending the same school,
(35:40):
which has changed names but is deeply rooted in its history.
I'm actually the first and only student archivist at my school.
The school changed names in eighteen fifty eight when it
moved to Union Springs, New York to Friends Academy, and
then in eighteen seventy six to Oakwood Seminary, and then
in nine changed to Oakwood School and moved back to
the Hudson Valley where Nine Partners originated. The final name
(36:02):
change was in when they changed the name to Oakwood
Friends School. I'm very proud to say I have attended
the school since sixth grade, and even prouder to say
I'm the first student archivists. That is so very, very cool.
He also mentions that James Mott was actually a bit
older than Lucretia Coffin Mott and was for a very
short time her teacher before she later was older and
(36:23):
they became a couple and got married all the best.
So that is very cool, Matt. That's such a fabulous connection.
We always love when people write to us with their
direct connections to history that we've talked about on the podcast.
You don't get much more direct than that. Uh. And
he also sent us some cool links about the school.
It was very very cool. We appreciate it. The next
(36:44):
one is from our listener Peter, and it is about
our diving podcast. And I'm not gonna read the whole
thing because, as I said, I'm reading several but he says, Uh,
the thing that actually prompted me to finally email you
is that I think you missed significant developments in the
history of diving equipment. And we mentioned that we would
because we can't do the whole thing. But the thing
(37:05):
he brings up is really cool. He says, specifically, I'm
thinking of a diving suit shown in Hans Talhoffer's fourteen
fifty nine manuscript. If any of our listeners don't know
what that is, it is a medieval warfare manuscript. Um.
It's a full body leather suit with a hose for air,
which was most likely provided by Bellows. Supposedly, this section
of his manuscript is basically a copy of an older
(37:27):
work Bellafortis, written by Conrad Kaiser between fourteen o two
and fourteen o five, but I haven't seen that book myself.
You can find scans of Talhoffer's book online, and he
gives us a link, although that link did not work
for me. But then he uh links us to a
video about He says, quote, some crazy Danish guys actually
(37:47):
built a similar diving apparatus which can be seen in
this video. Uh, and it's very fascinating because one the
one in Talhoffer's manuscript looks fantastically cool and creepy, which
always it's me. I love any cool and creepy design.
And to uh, in this video that he links to,
they built this, uh you know, ancient style diving suit
(38:10):
and they actually take it in the water and it
it does in fact work, and it's quite cool. So
we will, um hopefully I will remember to put a
link to that in my stuff that I sent off
to Tracy to include in show notes. Uh. So cool.
Thank you for sending that, Peter, because I really was
blown away by the absolutely gorgeous and fabulous design of
that diving suit. It looks like something out of um
(38:33):
like a Mike Manola comics, so so I was of
course very happy with it. Our next one is from
our listener Ray Uh, and it is about also a
brief history of diving technology. Says Hi, Holly and Tracy.
I've loved this podcast quite a while now and appreciate
how it has added more interesting and substantial background to
many topics I've been learning while in college. I wanted
(38:54):
to let you know that from my understanding gleaned from
my history of scientific revolution at the seventeenth century class
at the University of Texas Austin, Philosophical Transactions, which was
a book that we referenced in the podcast, was actually
the scientific journal of the Royal Society of London. The
journal was started by the Society's first secretary, Henry Oldenburg,
and was the means of communicating the Society's experiments and
(39:16):
findings to other scientific men. It was through Oldenburg and
Philosophical Transactions that Isaac Newton contacted the Royal Society to
inform them of his findings regarding light color and his
handbuilt reflecting telescope. In the podcast, you mentioned that Philosophical
Transactions is a work of Edmund Howe's. His article is
merely one included in the Royal Society's Scientific Journal. I
(39:37):
hope you to keep going with the podcast for a
long time. I really enjoy your enthusiasm for the topics
you discuss and the dynamic YouTube. Uh. The two of
you have adds to the fun factor of the podcast.
So thank you. Ray. That's a cool little tidbit that
did not quite sift out in my research, so I
appreciate it. Uh. Soon to be graduating, So congratulations on
(39:58):
your hard work. If you would like, if you're right
to us and add to that wondrous um stream of
communication that we get, you can do so at History
Podcast at how stuff works dot com. You can connect
with us at Facebook dot com, slash mist in history
on Twitter at mist in History, at pinterest dot com,
slash mist in History at Miston History dot tumbler dot com,
(40:20):
on Instagram, we're at mist in History. There are lots
and lots of ways if you would like to learn
a little bit about what we talked about today, uh,
and it's really what we talked about today. You can
go to our parents site, how stuff Works, pipe in Carampus,
and you will get that article that Tracy mentioned by
Robert Lamb. But where did crampus come from? Uh? There
are also other cool articles on our site, and you
(40:42):
can visit us at Misston History dot com if you
would like an archive of every episode of the podcast ever,
plus show notes of every podcast that has featured Tracy
and me, plus occasional other goodies. So come and visit
us at Misston history dot com and how stuff Works
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
(41:05):
visit how stuff works dot com
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how
Stuff Works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast.
I'm Holly Fry and I'm Tracy Tracy. We have had
a lot of request to talk about Crampas lately, we
have this year, and it's super cool, but he's become
(00:22):
really high profile, so lots of people already do know
a good bit about him. We are going to honor
those requests and we're still going to talk about Crampas
in this episode, but we're also going to talk about
some other non Santa holiday entities that are or have
been popular in various cultures at one time or another.
And while I want to talk about the Santa Bot
from Futurama, that is not really a cultural tradition. Uh.
(00:44):
Anybody who watches Futurama knows that it's a delight in
that particular robot as a killer. Uh. Same goes for
the ice Cream Bunny and the Martians that Santa Claus
battled in that one film, and the Heat Miser and
any of the ones from your childhood shows that you loved,
like those are all great characters anyway, So we are
not talking about any of those, even though they're wonderful.
We're looking at actual, actual, historically based cultural traditions here,
(01:07):
and because there were so many of these figures where
we can't do it all in one part, so we're
gonna have two parts on this one. Today we're covering three,
and then there will be several more in the next
episode for a nice holiday week of holiday characters from
around the world. Yeah, it's a little on the peppi
your side, not so much with the sadness, not so
(01:28):
much with My Solder Children episode or last year's on
the Christmas Tree Ship, which was just crushing. So unless
you've just not been in front of the television or
the computer or anything, you've probably heard about Crampas. He's
a horn terrifying creature that puts a much more sinister
spin on Christmas than St. Nicholas, for sure. Yeah. Uh,
(01:53):
And now Crampus has become so popular that there are
parades in cities throughout Europe and the US every year.
He's really caught on. Atlanta has a Crampus parade every year. Uh.
And this year there is even a movie, which I
think is part of the reason so many people have
been emailing us about it and the rise in popularity
of Grampus in the US is often credited to the
(02:13):
desire for an antidote to the commercialization of Christmas, but
most people, particularly non Europeans, do not seem to know
his actual origin story. They know what he is, they
don't really have a sense of the background. So Crampus
and Austrian culture is sort of the assistant to St. Nicholas.
So whereas St. Nick is the harbinger of good tidings
(02:36):
and gifts who comes on December six, Crampus is the
holiday visitor you're a lot more likely to get if
you have been ill behaved. He comes on the night
of December five, which is compass knocked. Yes. And in
case anyone is confused about the December sixth thing not
being December twenty, the day we celebrate Christmas, that is
(02:56):
the feast of St. Nicholas normally, so not everyone moves
it to that Saturnalia spot on the uh. Crampas is
a punisher. He carries sticks to beat unruly children, and
the really bad children gets stuffed in his sack. Uh.
It's sort of the ultimate be good or else mythology. UH.
In terms of like holiday threats to keep kids in line.
(03:19):
Those kids that are in the sack, they get dragged
back to Crampus's lair, where they are tortured or eaten
or both. So much bigger threat than you'll get coal
in your story. Coal is not delightful, but being beaten
and then consumed by a horrible beast is a little
more terrifying. He didn't start out as a Christmas creature
at all, though his origin is actually Norse. He's the
(03:40):
son of Hell, the female god of the underworld. That
means Crampas's grandfather is Loki. He's traditionally part of a
pre Germanic pagan tradition in Austria, and that name Crampus,
of course, also has nothing to do with Christmas. Is
a sidebar on that name. I highly recommend everyone to
go searching, and perhaps will link to it in our
show notes for the the clip of Kristoph Vaults on
(04:06):
Jimmy Fallon describing what Crampus is. No one says anything
better than Christoph Vults to begin with, and when he
talks about this, there's both delight and glee, and he
takes a certain, uh real pleasure, it seems, in telling
this tale, and particularly saying the word Crampus, So I
highly recommend it. You say, it's so much more beautifully
(04:26):
than I'd even like Crampus, only because I watched Christoph
Vults do it thirty two times yesterday, because it is
charming and I just adore him. So that name is
derived from the German word for claw, which is cramping,
And it's easy to see why that moniker would be
chosen when you look at Crampus, as Tracy mentioned, he's
got horns, he's hairy, those horns are massive, and he
(04:50):
has this terrifying demon face, and he's sort of like
a big walking claw ready to snatch children. This whole
demonic presence was almost as undoing. In the twelfth century.
Crampus and his demon face were deemed a little too
devilish for the Catholic Church, and that organization attempted to
ban Crampus and all activities related to him. But instead
(05:12):
of doing away with Crampas, I've given up all attempts
that saying it the way Hollydas people just looped him
into the celebration of St. Nicholas on December six instead. Yeah,
I mean, it certainly didn't happen magically and quickly like that.
But it it is sort of a co mingling of
the two cultural traditions to come up with this this
weird marriage. And from there the cramp the Crampas tradition
(05:36):
grew and became more and more part of winter holiday tradition.
So Crampas knocked parades became popular December fifth events, with
many young men donning the guys of the scary but
fun punisher of bad children to walk the streets menacingly.
I read one report that was basically like, Yeah, these
guys get together in their first suits, they do a
few shots, get a little drunk, and then they put
(05:58):
on their masks and their horns and they just run
through the streets sort of playfully terrifying people like they
messed with everybody. That I used my power of editorial
director to nicely ask Robert Lamb, that's stuff to blow
your mind. Uh, if he could write an article about
crampas first this year, And he did um And one
of the things that he wrote about is that there's
(06:18):
a fine line sometimes between like gleeful mischief and deliberately
horrifying small children. So he was once again under fire
in the nineteen thirties when the Christian Social Party outlawed
him following the Austrian Civil War once again because it's
the saying he's the personification of evil. By that point,
Crampus would become a lot more popular than St. Nick himself,
(06:41):
which is also something that that Robert talks about in
his article about how a lot of times in parades
that include both sat Nick and and Crampus, they're like
vastly outnumbered. They are way more Crampuses than St. Nick's. Yeah,
and for much of the twentieth century, uh, there were,
you know, various other affections that have kind of tried
(07:02):
to sweep him under the rug a little bit. But
so he was on the d L. He really wasn't
a big part of holiday celebrations for a while. But
then in the late twentieth century that tradition was really revived.
It wasn't like it ever completely went away, but it
really got like a big resurgence of interest and it
continues to gain steam. But even in the modern era,
Carampus has been targeted for the trauma that some parents
(07:23):
believe that he caused to children. Child psychologist named Max
Friederick raised some concerns about the scares that Crampus gave
back in two thousand and six, and then more recently
over the last couple of years, as Austria welcome Syrian
and Iraqi refree refugees, the country has sort of made
efforts to educate the newcomers um about what this scary
(07:46):
seeming beast is all about and now it's all in fun. Yeah,
there's really sort of a little bit of an image clarification.
It's not so much a makeover as just community like
good pr explaining like no, no, no, this you are
not actually going to get stolen away because I can
imagine a child fleeing a situation and going somewhere and
then at this time of year that's their introduction to
(08:08):
a new culture like that would be horrified by the
way you're going to be kidnapped and eaton. So they've
they've really done a lot of outreach to try to
explain like no, no, this is a tradition and it's
all in fun and everyone is safe and there will
be candy. It just looks a little scary, so, uh,
just kind of a good way to manage something like that,
I think, and hopefully that's been effective. Uh, We're going
to talk next about a fun Italian figure that I
(08:31):
really love that we're going to have a quick word
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(10:21):
And now we'll hop back into our story. So next
we're going to talk about Laba Fauna Italy was a
wonderful witchy lady in its winter holiday traditions. This is
an old hag named la bea fauna who visits riding
a broom on the night of January five and in
the wee hours of January six, so at Epiphany, that is,
(10:43):
in Christian religious terms, the day that commemorates when the
magi got to see you weren't Christ child, and thus
that was the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles. But
on first glance, particularly for those of us that did
not grow up with Laba fauna and she's sometimes also
just called fauna, she doesn't really seem to fit any
of the traditional religious mythology, but her name is infected
(11:06):
derivation of the word epifania, which is the Italian word
for epiphany, and in many ways she has a lot
in common with Santa Claus. So Italian children right but
right Buffana letters in the weeks leading up to her visit,
letting her know what's on their wish lists to ensure
that she graces them with gifts instead of coal. They're
also in their best behavior. Families leave out a glass
(11:29):
of wine and some sausage and broccoli for a La
Bafana when they go to bed on January five. I
would be down with that meal. Whine shuffling children hang
stockings for her to fill, and she often comes in
through the chimney, so there's a lot of parallels there. Yeah,
it makes me laugh that you thought that was a
good meal, because one of the writers that was writing
about this tradition was saying, like, that's a much healthier,
(11:52):
better option than what Santa usually gets breaks wine at
every house. I don't know that you could continue that claim,
but well, it depends on how out how heavy that sausage, right,
balance in all things, But if you're only eating cookies
and milk all night, that's kind of a recipe for
a number of medical issues. And while this may all
(12:12):
seem distant, as I kind of mentioned earlier, from the
story of Christ's birth, there's actually Italian in the mythology.
So Lava Fauna, according to legend, was a widow who
had also lost her child, living alone in the Italian
hillside when Jesus was born, but Fauna saw the bright
light in the sky that's associated in Christianity with the
(12:33):
birth of Christ, so the Star of Bethlehem, and initially
she ignored this light, but then the three Wise Men
stopped by her house on their journey to find the
newborn son. Of God, and after enjoying her hospitality, they
invited her to come along with them. Initially, she declined
to come along, but then she reconsidered after they left
and decided that because she loved children, she would catch
(12:54):
up to the wise men and travel along with them
after all, and carrying some baked and her broom, which
she was bringing in case. Mary wanted her to help
out by tidying up the major but Fanna left her
home but she could not find the wise men. She
was trying to catch up to them, but she couldn't
and she became lost. And angels appeared in some tellings
(13:17):
of the story when she was just near exhaustion, and
they used magic to enchant Baffauna's broom so that she
could ride it. And so the kindly old woman continued
her search, riding her broom for the baby Jesus. She
never found him, which made me so sad, But her
search continues, and every epiphany she rides a broom looking
for the child. And because she loves all children, she
(13:39):
leaves gifts for all that she visits, and traditionally the
gifts that she leaves are reminders of the story of Jesus.
There are some other variations on the Labba Funa story.
If you read various accounts, including ways that her child
or children, there's again as a mythology, there's some details
that shift a lot, uh, including the ways that her
offspring died and and so her intent is actually to
(14:01):
give her deceased kids belongings to Mary's newborn Uh. But
though all of these stories center on Laba Fauna deciding
to go see the infant Christ, in reality her roots
are in paganism, which is a case for many traditions. Yes,
and some old pagan rituals, an elderly woman would be
burned in the center of a town to symbolize the
(14:23):
end of one year and the beginning of another. Celtic
ceremonies in the Alps involved wicker puppets similarly burned to
represent the death of the old and the restoration and
renewal of the new year, and European folklore in various
locations has considered the time between Christmas and the Epiphany
as it kind of merged uh the Christianity along with
(14:46):
their their pagan rituals, as sort of a time of
which is in magic, with the Epiphany considered the most
magical night of the year. So Bafana ties into this
idea of magic overlapping uh and the idea of renewal
in the new years. So if you did the ven
diagram of Christianity and Paganism, that's kind of right where
Laba Fauna lands. She's further linked to the new year
(15:08):
in her association with the ancient Roman goddess of the
new year Strina, also seen as Strenia and Strenua, and
this also provides kind of an alternate origin straight to
her her name as instead being rooted in the word
but Strina, which were gifts that were linked to that goddess.
So yeah, I love her. I love when you see
(15:29):
pictures of of women dressed as Befauna during Christmas celebrations
in Italy because I love witchy things anyway, like this,
The the iconography of the classic witch is one that
I have been in love with since I was a child.
So to kind of ploff that in the middle of
Christmas is like, that is my kind of Christmas. I
love her sweetness to it. I knew nothing about this
(15:50):
until you told me, and I was like that, but no,
I love that. That's the best idea it's very sweet.
It's um as it's been adopted and evolved, it's become
this nice grand motherly figure that you know, cares about
kids and comes with candy and kind of love. I
love it. Next we are going to talk about center Class,
and my first introduction to center Class was actually through
(16:13):
my husband, who is not Dutch, but for a while
he worked for a weather company that was doing whether
it's like the Weather Channel but for the Netherlands at
the time, I don't think it exists anymore, and they
had to do center Clause coverage around the holidays. So
he was the first person that told me this story,
and some elements of it left me agog did they
(16:33):
Did they track center Claus like Norad track Santa? They did, uh,
But because he hangs around for a lot longer, it
was a much lengthier tracking situation than a one night deal. So,
as we just alluded to, the Netherlands twist on St.
Nicholas is called center Class and comes with some baggage
(16:53):
which we will talk about. But first we are going
to give more of a rundown of the center Class tradition.
So while December six is the main event for center Class,
just as for St. Nicholas. In other cultures, his holiday
journey starts well before that in November. So traditionally on
a morning in mid November, Center Claus arrives usually in
(17:14):
Amsterdam is the big one via steamboat. He comes from Spain.
And for this large one in Amsterdam, he normally appears
on the Amstelle River at the docks and docks a
little while later, so they take time. They cover him
coming up the river in his steamboat and he's then
greeted by a public official, usually such as the mayor,
and then Center Class mon mounts a white or sometimes
(17:36):
gray horse to parade through the city and that how
he comes from Spain. Like I mean, this is like
a story that a child is telling me. It's like
a penny cartoon, you remember those from Phewous playouts. It is.
So the parade normally starts a little afternoon and it
takes a couple of hours traveling through the city. In
addition to Center Class, there are brass bands, floats, clowns
(18:00):
and peten peton or Center classes helpers and we're coming
back to them in a little bit. At the end
of the parade, Center Class addresses the children and parents
of the Netherlands and they're often smaller Center Class parades
held all over the Netherlands, and this mid November arrival
is actually the start of Center Class season. So from
(18:21):
this point until December six, Center Class and all his
helpers travel throughout the Netherlands. They visit schools and hospitals,
they do some charity work. They also keep an eye
out to check on the behavior of children, even listening
at chimneys to see how kids are behaving when they
can't see Center Claus watching. And during this time, children
leave shoes out, often accompanied by carrots or hay for
(18:43):
Center Claus's horse, in the hopes that the Peton will
leave them candy, ginger, biscuits, oranges and small gifts in
their shoes, and Center Claus and the Peton will sometimes
visit houses multiple times during this November to December six period,
so kids will sometimes get like little small gifts during
that time multiple times, and then the big event is
(19:03):
still the sixth, though this elongated celebration of Center Class
started in the nineteen thirties. Before that, the Dutch st
Nick simply came in on December six to bring gifts,
but now there's a whole shopping and celebrating block of
the calendar that's heralded by this November arrival of Center Class.
So it's not entirely unlike Thanksgiving signaling the official start
(19:27):
of the holiday shopping season in the US, even though
some places put that more in like August. Now. We
talked about that on our previous podcast that we used
to host, the other called Pop Stuff Holiday Creek. We
did I'm the only person that it doesn't bother apparently,
and I had to laugh. It's one of those things too.
(19:47):
Again I will throw my friends under the bus. But
when you're telling people things that you're working on and
they respond in ways for their like that's weird, that's
just commercialism to have Center Class come in November, And
I'm like, do you not watch the Macy's things like
don't don't think of it, like that's strange, and other
(20:08):
just look at parallel to what we all experience. So
then after at the end of this season, on the
night of December five, Center Claus rides his horse throughout
the country, delivering gifts and treats, sometimes a little uh
sugar retreats in burlap sacks, but that is for the
good children. The bad children get carted away by the
peton and taken to Spain. What a terrible fate. I'm thinking, like,
(20:32):
maybe I'm bad. I get a vacation. And just as St.
Nicholas has Crampas has crampus in Austria Center, Claus has
a counterpart who deals with unruly children, and that is
where the baggage that we mentioned earlier comes in. We're
going to talk about that baggage and some of the
battles waging culturally around it, right after we have a
(20:53):
word from one of our fabulous sponsors. So you and
I are currently recording a super marathon session of all
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of the year, which means we've been doing a ton
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things to talk about, which can be a little tiring.
(21:14):
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(22:40):
and now we'll get back to our story. So back
to the peten the helper's specifically a helper named Varta Pete.
Varta Pete translates to Black Peter, and he and the
other Peton in these uh center class celebrations often appear
in blackface. Tradition of the center class parade and his
(23:02):
Moorish slave, Black Pete started in the late eighteen hundreds,
and at that time black face would not have really
raised people's eyebrows. And for a long time, it kind
of a surprisingly long time, really, it continued not to
raise anyone's eyebrows. The solidification of this center Clous story
is sometimes credited to a book that was published in
eighteen fifties, so a little before this really got a
(23:24):
big swell in the late eighteen hundreds. In that book
is titled St. Nicholas and His Servant, and it's written
by Jan Shankman. And this is the first known writing
that clearly outlines all of the traditions of center Claus,
including that steamboat and the horse riding, and of course
Black Peter. And while there are some mentions of center
Claus in earlier literature that mentioned a servant of color
(23:45):
accompanying him, this is really when the story of a
Moorish slave was written into the narrative in clear terms
that we know of. But even though the story of St.
Nick and his servant was published in the mid eighteen hundreds,
the mythology was still evolving into the twentieth century. Uh
The name, for example, was not uniform for some time,
(24:08):
and written accounts naming St. Nicholas servant include all kinds
of different names. Sometimes he was just named Yawn or Pete,
which were common servant names. In nineteen eleven, a picture
book was published with some of the most popular images
of St. Nick's dark skinned slave dressed in seventeenth century garb,
and at this point there was just one Pete. So
(24:29):
we've mentioned that he comes a lot of times in
parades with Peton, with many of them, but at this
point there was just the one in the narrative. By
the nineteen twenties, this portrayal was really cemented in the
cultural consciousness, and part of the problem that people point
to later on is that he was really portrayed as
a half wit. He only spoke broken Dutch, and he
(24:50):
wasn't really very bright at all. Far too, Pete evolved further,
eventually becoming less of a buffoon and more lovable, although
he was still portrayed as a slave or servant to
center class, and some characterizations of him indicated that his
black skin was actually the result of sit coming from
going down chimneys and not a difference in his race. However,
(25:12):
he had kinky he still had kinky, curly hair, and
his clothes were clean despite of this, despite the that
was purportedly blackening his skin. Yeah, if you look at
picture of him even now, it's like looking at sort
of standard black face that we've seen throughout the years,
where you know, the lips are drawn very big in red,
and then the skin is obviously painted a very even
(25:35):
tone and the curly wig. It's clearly a heavy exaggeration
of racist stereotypes, is how you would describe that in
a center completely uh zwarta Pete went from being just
the one servant to a whole horde of peton over
the years, and people have been dressing in black face
to disguise themselves as peten and celebrate the winter holidays
(25:57):
for decades. Like many people will dress up at the
pete and go out party. Uh. During this this stretch
of time and Swart Peton has appeared on postcards and
other memorabilia, and these pets has really been a well
loved part of the festivities. Until nine that's the first
(26:18):
time on record that's someone This was a woman named
mc grin. Bauer brought up the idea that Zwarte Pete
was inappropriate, pointing out that while slavery had long been
abolished in the Netherlands center classes, companion was still being
represented as a slave. And it really did take a
little while for a more widespread discussion about the black
(26:39):
faced zore to Pete to happen. And even so, this
is an issue that continues to the moment we are
recording this in December, to be hotly debated has literally yesterday. Yeah,
I mean, if you look at our show notes this time,
you will see things that are coming out sort of
right here at the beginning of December when we're recording.
So while some claim that the image of Pete is
(27:01):
harmless and in good fun, many others have cried foul
and said that it's flat out racism in the battle
between those who wish to hold onto this tradition and
something that they really think of quite lovingly from their
childhood and those who wish to do away with the
symbol and the inherent negative messages attached to it. Really
rages on. And I'm not downplaying, I'm not I'm not
(27:22):
exaggerating when I say it rages on. People are very
angry on both sides of this equation, definite, both sides. Anger.
Protests against Zwart Pete have really grown in recent years,
and in the u N Human Rights Commission looked at
those of our to Pete issue. The u N HRC
Committee Chair Verene Shepherd of Jamaica made a statement before
(27:44):
the committee met saying that quote this is a throwback
to slavery and that in the twenty one century this
practice should stop. Additionally, an application filed by the St.
Nicholas Society of the Netherlands to have Center Clouds included
on the UNESCO List of in Agible Heritage was returned
to them. Uh it was denied for the moment until
(28:04):
something could be done about this problem of Zante Pete.
There has perhaps surprisingly been huge pushback in the Netherlands
and many continue to include Artapee and their celebrations. Just
a few weeks ago, the Dutch Embassy in Camera Australia
held a center class parade with a full complement of
black faced attendance. Yeah, that brought up a lot of
(28:28):
news coverage and again anger on both sides. People really
defend their desire to include this thing that they loved
when they were a kid, and to them it's a
character they loved. They aren't really willing to see the
other side. I don't know how to fix it. Everybody
has this. This is a battle we fight in the
US all the time of tradition versus like changing social values. Well,
(28:53):
and the I actually was really interested to learn about
this in the outline because like the United States history
has a as to my knowledge, a much more lengthy
and and deep history of minstrel shows that had characters
in black face that came along like during the Civil
(29:14):
War and afterwards, and we're deeply offensive and like I
have seen people say, well, you can't apply things from
American culture to these other cultures and realizing that that's
not what's happening here. Yeah, what's happening here. Yeah, it's
it's very fascinating. And what's really interesting is they're taking
(29:37):
sort of an interesting approach. There are some some interesting
efforts being made to try to soften the black Peter
issue and transition the character to a less offensive version,
but still find a way to include this part of
holiday traditions that so many people love and they're not
quite ready to part with so uh. Pets, for example
(29:58):
in Amsterdam have been encourage that if they are going
to do the black face, to have smaller lips, to
not be quite the level of caricature racial stereotyping that
it has been. They're not allowed to wear gold earrings,
and they're not supposed to be doing those curly haired wigs.
Hair should be softer. And an additional transformation, uh, including
the painting of peats in many colors, which they tried
(30:20):
at one point to do this mythology where they the
peats were coming to the US in one story and
they passed through a rainbow and it colored them all
different colors, and a lot of people hated it and
got really mad about it. Um, But they're trying to
incorporate that and suggest that maybe we should do other
colors and that way it's still this interesting, colorful character.
And I use that in the not racially loaded sense,
(30:42):
colorful character uh that you can still love and it's
still similar to what you had when you were a kid,
but it is not kind of connected to all of
those racial issues that it currently has, So that plan
to change the peats to different colors and continue to
kind of switch up the image slowly and transition. It
(31:02):
is expected to be integrated into celebrations in Amsterdam over
the course of the next several years. The center class
legend dates back to the fourth century, when Nicholas, the
Bishop of Mira came to came from modern day Turkey,
and there's some fuzziness about how exactly center Claus ended
up making his home in Spain. The most likely story
(31:23):
is that when Spain ruled land in the Netherlands in
the sixteenth and seventeenth century, the lore shifted to make
this uh most benevolent holiday figure to become a son
of Spain. And now I kind of put that bit
at the end because it seems like, you know, we're
once again in an evolution of center Claus, at least
(31:44):
in terms of his relationship with his now friend rather
than slave. That's another shift that's happened. He's a friend
of center Claus, he's not his servant. But we're gonna
be watching history unfold in real time in the coming
years around what's gonna and we'll see what happens. As
every culture of als, there are going to be elements
of iconography and much loved things that are no longer
(32:05):
really appropriate. But there's that argument always of you don't
want to throw everything out of a tradition because some
people still love it and it has a good meaning
to them. But at the same time, you can't just
let things stay forever stagnating something that is maybe not
so great well, And a lot of depictions that I
(32:25):
have seen of Zartepete remind me of salt shakers you
would find in an antique store that are from the
forties that are of fancies today, and like you could
have that in a museum in in a display that
(32:48):
talks about like the cultural signifiers of slavery and how
they came to be part of this this everyday life.
For a lot of people, you would not want to
have that on your dinner table if you were, uh,
you know, progressively minded person. Yeah. Yeah, So, like I said,
(33:09):
we get to kind of watch history unfold before us,
because while it's happening in the present day, this will
be a history that people talk about for a long time,
I imagine, because it is an interesting example of how
a culture is trying to find a way to deal
with this clash of of tradition and modern values. So
from that point of view, I'm excited about it, just
(33:29):
kind of watching how it's going to play out. I
kind of wish we had that listener mail about about
the college mascot being the Rebels. Oh yeah, and there
are several more interesting characters that are celebrated as part
of winter holidays around the world, and we are going
to talk about those, but not this time. So next
time around there will be more holiday fun because there
(33:51):
are more characters to talk about. Some of them are
delightfully kookie. But first I have listener mail. I have
three pieces of listener mail trade see Okay, I know
that might sound extreme, but I feel bad because we
get a day sometimes and we only read two a week,
and I feel bad because there are lots of good
ones that don't always get place they have. So I
(34:12):
have four or five things in my inbox that are
things that where I want to answer that. And now
the thing that someone has asked was asking about has passed. Yeah,
I'm going to go on a road trip? Do you
have suggestions for this place that I'm going? And I'll be, oh, yeah,
I want to answer that, and then oh, that person's
road trip is gone. I feel slightly better knowing that
(34:34):
happens to YouTube in my head. You never dropped that ball,
But I feel like I just dropped the ball on
the ground and end up somewhere else. Then I'm embarrassed,
and sometimes I write, I'm like, I'm so sorry I
didn't send you any ideas before. We're not we always
say this, We're not ignoring anybody on purpose. There's just
there is definitely a volume to human time ratios that's
(34:56):
a little bit difficult to navigate. Me read all of them.
We read all of them so much for sending email.
We do read all of them. Yeah, so for this one, uh,
like I said, I have three none, No, none of
them are terribly long. The first one is from our
listener Matt, and he is writing about our Declaration of
Sentiments episode and he says, Dear Holly and Tracy, I'm
a long time listener and a huge fan. I honestly
(35:18):
think I learned more from the podcast than when I
learned than what I learned in my u S History class.
I'm currently a junior in high school. I'm writing in
regards to your most recent episode, The Road to the
Declaration of Sentiments. You mentioned Lucretia Mott, and I squealed
with joy as you mentioned she attended and later worked
at Nine Partners Boarding School. Well, here I am over
a hundred and fifty years later, attending the same school,
(35:40):
which has changed names but is deeply rooted in its history.
I'm actually the first and only student archivist at my school.
The school changed names in eighteen fifty eight when it
moved to Union Springs, New York to Friends Academy, and
then in eighteen seventy six to Oakwood Seminary, and then
in nine changed to Oakwood School and moved back to
the Hudson Valley where Nine Partners originated. The final name
(36:02):
change was in when they changed the name to Oakwood
Friends School. I'm very proud to say I have attended
the school since sixth grade, and even prouder to say
I'm the first student archivists. That is so very, very cool.
He also mentions that James Mott was actually a bit
older than Lucretia Coffin Mott and was for a very
short time her teacher before she later was older and
(36:23):
they became a couple and got married all the best.
So that is very cool, Matt. That's such a fabulous connection.
We always love when people write to us with their
direct connections to history that we've talked about on the podcast.
You don't get much more direct than that. Uh. And
he also sent us some cool links about the school.
It was very very cool. We appreciate it. The next
(36:44):
one is from our listener Peter, and it is about
our diving podcast. And I'm not gonna read the whole
thing because, as I said, I'm reading several but he says, Uh,
the thing that actually prompted me to finally email you
is that I think you missed significant developments in the
history of diving equipment. And we mentioned that we would
because we can't do the whole thing. But the thing
(37:05):
he brings up is really cool. He says, specifically, I'm
thinking of a diving suit shown in Hans Talhoffer's fourteen
fifty nine manuscript. If any of our listeners don't know
what that is, it is a medieval warfare manuscript. Um.
It's a full body leather suit with a hose for air,
which was most likely provided by Bellows. Supposedly, this section
of his manuscript is basically a copy of an older
(37:27):
work Bellafortis, written by Conrad Kaiser between fourteen o two
and fourteen o five, but I haven't seen that book myself.
You can find scans of Talhoffer's book online, and he
gives us a link, although that link did not work
for me. But then he uh links us to a
video about He says, quote, some crazy Danish guys actually
(37:47):
built a similar diving apparatus which can be seen in
this video. Uh, and it's very fascinating because one the
one in Talhoffer's manuscript looks fantastically cool and creepy, which
always it's me. I love any cool and creepy design.
And to uh, in this video that he links to,
they built this, uh you know, ancient style diving suit
(38:10):
and they actually take it in the water and it
it does in fact work, and it's quite cool. So
we will, um hopefully I will remember to put a
link to that in my stuff that I sent off
to Tracy to include in show notes. Uh. So cool.
Thank you for sending that, Peter, because I really was
blown away by the absolutely gorgeous and fabulous design of
that diving suit. It looks like something out of um
(38:33):
like a Mike Manola comics, so so I was of
course very happy with it. Our next one is from
our listener Ray Uh, and it is about also a
brief history of diving technology. Says Hi, Holly and Tracy.
I've loved this podcast quite a while now and appreciate
how it has added more interesting and substantial background to
many topics I've been learning while in college. I wanted
(38:54):
to let you know that from my understanding gleaned from
my history of scientific revolution at the seventeenth century class
at the University of Texas Austin, Philosophical Transactions, which was
a book that we referenced in the podcast, was actually
the scientific journal of the Royal Society of London. The
journal was started by the Society's first secretary, Henry Oldenburg,
and was the means of communicating the Society's experiments and
(39:16):
findings to other scientific men. It was through Oldenburg and
Philosophical Transactions that Isaac Newton contacted the Royal Society to
inform them of his findings regarding light color and his
handbuilt reflecting telescope. In the podcast, you mentioned that Philosophical
Transactions is a work of Edmund Howe's. His article is
merely one included in the Royal Society's Scientific Journal. I
(39:37):
hope you to keep going with the podcast for a
long time. I really enjoy your enthusiasm for the topics
you discuss and the dynamic YouTube. Uh. The two of
you have adds to the fun factor of the podcast.
So thank you. Ray. That's a cool little tidbit that
did not quite sift out in my research, so I
appreciate it. Uh. Soon to be graduating, So congratulations on
(39:58):
your hard work. If you would like, if you're right
to us and add to that wondrous um stream of
communication that we get, you can do so at History
Podcast at how stuff works dot com. You can connect
with us at Facebook dot com, slash mist in history
on Twitter at mist in History, at pinterest dot com,
slash mist in History at Miston History dot tumbler dot com,
(40:20):
on Instagram, we're at mist in History. There are lots
and lots of ways if you would like to learn
a little bit about what we talked about today, uh,
and it's really what we talked about today. You can
go to our parents site, how stuff Works, pipe in Carampus,
and you will get that article that Tracy mentioned by
Robert Lamb. But where did crampus come from? Uh? There
are also other cool articles on our site, and you
(40:42):
can visit us at Misston History dot com if you
would like an archive of every episode of the podcast ever,
plus show notes of every podcast that has featured Tracy
and me, plus occasional other goodies. So come and visit
us at Misston history dot com and how stuff Works
dot com. For more on this and thousands of other topics,
(41:05):
visit how stuff works dot com
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