Today I ventured out to my town’s little samichlaus (Santa in Swiss German) procession. It was cute and creepy at the same time – I headed down just in time – as I arrived, Samichlaus emerged from a dark side street, some teenagers saw him and yelled “Hoi, samichlaus!”, so I knew I was in the right place, and the meager and quiet procession began. About 10 or 15 Santas were there, dressed in either black or red, talking to the kiddies and handing out presents (peanuts and oranges) or alternately threatening to kidnap them in their burlap sacks. Here’s the pic of samichlaus I found on the internet after a bit of research (just slightly different from what I saw in reality tonight) . His story is pretty similar to the Dutch Sinterklaas - he’s a bishop, with some Moorish/chimneysweep helpers all named Pete, who take bad children back to Spain with them. Any questions? I didn’t think so.
The most people I’ve ever seen on the main street in Wadenswil, very organized with security and crowd control
The two main guys
Two other santas help guide the donkey pulling the wooden wagon with tree and treats aboard
This black santa had a lot of trouble coaxing his donkey to keep parade-ing
The black santas terrifying the small children
Here you can see the sack used for kidnapping
Donkey bites child’s face
Child talks to Bishop Santa
Santa loads up on treats to distribute
