FallPaperturn - Flipbook - Page 38
est. 2020, mountainville, nj
Best of Holiday Lore
The Belsnickel
and the Bell Snicklers of Califon
By C.G. Wolfe
Out on the lawn there
arose such a clatter...
No, it9s not St. Nick!
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I
f the thought of a stranger coming
down your chimney at night and leaving a lump of coal isn9t enough to induce
good behavior at Christmas time, then
maybe you need a fur-clad, masked man
with a switch 3 who is not afraid to use it.
In Germany, the dark and mischievous
Belsnickel would arrive two weeks before
Christmas with a switch (or even a crop or
a whip) in one hand and a sack of goodies
in the other. Wild and ragged looking with his face blackened with coal or covered
in a mask with a protruding tongue, he9d arrive at a house, unannounced, and tap
menacingly on the window with his switch. The Belsnickel would demand to know
who had been naughty and if he thought you were fibbing, he was liable to give
you a swat with his switch. Then he9d ask each child to recite a bible verse or sing
a song. If he were satisfied, he would toss a generous handful of candies and nuts
on the floor. Those greedy children who jumped too fast for the goodies got another lick with the switch.
When German immigrants came to America in the 18th and 19th centuries,
they brought the Belsnickel with them, where he became part of the yule time celebrations in the heavily German settled areas of Pennsylvania, Appalachia, and
the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. German Palatines that settled in Long Valley
and Califon, New Jersey, also continued the tradition but over time, the menacing
Belsnickel was replaced by groups of roving Christmas revelers, as described by
the late, Helen Haggerty Geist in her book, The Califon Story, first published in
1966, and still available in reprint from the Califon Historical Society.
