Nicholas Plays Archives - Bone and Sickle

Christmas Devils and the Feast of Fools

December 12, 2022 boneandsickle Boy bishop, Catholicism, Christmas, Devil, EPISODE, Feast of Fools, folk theater, folklore, history, holidays, manuscripts, New Year, Nicholas Plays, Satan, St. Nicholas, Twelve Days of Christmas

From St. Nicholas Day through Christmas, the Devil figured prominently in medieval plays, embodying a subversive seasonal element also celebrated[…]

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#15 Saint, Devil, Sugar-Bread, & Whip: KRAMPUS AND NICHOLAS

November 28, 2018 boneandsickle Austria, Christmas, EPISODE, folk theater, folklore, Germanic, Germany, history, holidays, Nicholas Plays, pagan, paganism, Perchten, saints, St. Nicholas

The Krampus and St. Nicholas represent a folkloric duality embodying a mode of childrearing the Germans call “sugar-bread and whip”[…]

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