Quote:
Originally Posted by ForeverRoses
In Bavaria, they would put the bad kids in a sack and shake it- My Mom told me growing up she was more scared of Santa (I forget what she called him) than anything.
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I think you are referring to "Black Peter" or Zwarte Piet:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Peter
Here is a small copy and paste jobby:
"Zwarte Piet is often portrayed as a mischievous but rarely a mean-spirited character. Parents used to tell their children that if they have been good, Zwarte Piet will bring them gifts and sweets, but if they have been bad, Piet will scoop them up, stuff them in his huge dufflebag and spirit them away to Spain as punishment. Though this is increasingly uncommon nowadays, he can still carry some type of whip or scourge, especially a birch, which could be used for birching or in modern words, to chastise children who have been too naughty to deserve presents. The character is believed to have been derived from pagan traditions of evil spirits. Also told for decades is a story that the Zwarte Pieten are black because of chimney soot and/or in mockery of the darker Spanish occupiers of the Low Countries in centuries past."
And this has nothing to do with Christmas, but easily, this is an example of creepy to end all creepy...
The Child-Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
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