St. Nicholas Day

St. Nicholas DaySt. Nicholas Day in Austria is primarily a children’s holiday. As usual, in the evening of December 5, children put polished shoes outside the threshold, and adults hide gifts in it. Most of these are sweets: nuts, apples, tangerines, delicious Christmas cookies, etc. On the morning of December 6, children check to see if there are gifts in the shoes, and they usually find gifts from St. Nicholas.

In Austria, according to the pre-Christmas traditions, the “good” St. Nicholas is accompanied by the “evil” Krampus. This tradition arose thanks to the Austrian peasantry and was closely associated with the onset of winter and the arrival of cold weather, and with them the “evil” winter spirits. Even today, in rural Austria, young people dress up as Krampus and run around the villages to find the girls hiding from them. It is believed that these days are rampant various evil spirits of winter.

St. Nicholas is considered in Europe not only “Grandfather Frost”, but also the patron saint of marriage. There is an old legend, according to which Nicholas put golden apples in bed with three girls, whom their father wanted because of poverty to sell in a brothel. Having become rich in this way, the girls escaped a terrible fate and were able to marry their loved ones. According to other legends, St. Nicholas saves from hunger or helps sailors in distress.