Who Started St. Nick Coming Again on December 31 by French or Spanish Every Year in Louisiana
Manufactures & ESSAYS
A Kinder, Gentler St. Nicholas: Transformation and Meaning in a "Louisiana German" Tradition
By Rocky L. Sexton
In 1881 German language-Catholic immigrants settled in Roberts Cove on the southwest Louisiana prairie. Roberts Cove is not a boondocks, only rather a scattered rural community with the St. Leo's Catholic church building complex as a community and cultural heart. Located three miles northwest of Rayne in Acadia Parish, Roberts Cove was staunchly High german until the World State of war I era when harsh anti-German language wartime legislation initiated a decline of the German language and other cultural elements (McCord 1970: Kondert 1988). Over the next several decades, there was increased intermarriage betwixt Roberts Cove residents and their Cajun-French and Anglo-American neighbors (Sexton 1996). Consequently, in that location are few remaining High german speakers and relatively few overt manifestations of German civilisation nonetheless the customs is withal viewed as a German indigenous enclave.
St. Nicholas, Lil' Blackness Peter, and Santa Claus are fundamental figures in the community pagent for the Feast of St. Nick in the High german community of Robert's Cove in Acadia Parish, 1991. Photo: Pat Mire.
Prior to the organization of the Roberts Cove Germanfest in 1995, the St. Nicholas commemoration was the most publicized tradition in Roberts Cove linked to German ethnicity (Boudreaux 1968). The holiday is modeled on the exploits of a fifth-century Bishop named Nicholas from Myra (in nowadays-day Turkey) who accomplished Catholic sainthood. Saint Nicholas became a widely popular saint in Europe after his relics were transferred from Myra to Bari, Italian republic in 1087 (Mackenzie 1987). Past the Center Ages, Saint Nicholas, whose banquet day falls on December 6, had get the patron of children, sailors, merchants, schoolboys, and young girls, and his popularity approached that of the Virgin Mary (De Groot 1965). He eventually became associated primarily with children and gift-giving. Though St. Nicholas was later on dropped from the official Catholic calendar of saints, he is even so popularly regarded equally the patron saint of children (Curtis 1995). St. Nicholas served as the model for the American Santa Claus, but distinctive forms of the St. Nicholas celebration, as well as the character St. Nicholas, take remained popular throughout Europe. This holiday is also popular in Roberts Cove where on the evening of Dec fifth (St. Nicholas Eve), a procession of costumed characters and a choir travel through the community to entertain children and adults alike. one Present-day St. Nicholas celebrations differ considerably, still, from accounts of the outcome earlier in this century. In the following pages, the contemporary Roberts Cove issue will be described. Post-obit that, by transformation of the St. Nicholas celebration and its relationship to contemporary "Louisiana German" civilisation will be discussed. 2 This involves identifying the specific processes through which changes, meanings, and values are negotiated in a folk tradition.
Customs members help ready St. Nicholas for the Banquet of St. Nicholas commemoration on Dec 5 in the High german American community of Robert'southward Cove in Acadia Parish, 1991. Photo: Pat Mire.
To gloat St. Nicholas' Eve in present-day Roberts Cove, participants assemble at the St. Leo church hall in the belatedly afternoon. The grouping includes a choir of 16 and women drawn primarily from the church building choir, and three males who will assume the roles of St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Blackness Peter. The roles of St. Nicholas and Santa Claus were once restricted to male church choir members but currently any male congregation member is eligible to fill these roles. Black Peter is chosen from the church chantry boys. All three characters are selected by the parish priest and the head of the St. Leo Choir. Those portraying St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Black Peter are supposed to remain anonymous, and so as presently as they go far each is surrounded by choir members who aid him to don his costume. St. Nicholas is dressed in a flowing white and gold robe and carries a bishop's mitre. His face is disguised past a thick awarding of white facepaint and a long white bristles. To assure complete disguise he as well wears a pair of white gloves. A long crozier (staff) completes his clerical appearance. Black Peter is outfitted in blackness tights, long dark blouse, a turban, and his face is completely blackened. 3 In keeping with the role, he wears a pair of black gloves. Santa Claus is dressed in the traditional manner supplemented by white facepaint and gloves. The choir members dress in identical black pants, black shoes, red sweater decorated with an epitome of St. Nicholas, and each wears a bell around his or her neck.
The Roberts Cove choir, 1991. Photo: Pat Mire.
Later preparations, the group loads onto a schoolhouse bus to begin the evening tour. The route comprises stops at xv households nearly all of which prevarication inside the perceived geographical confines of Roberts Cove. Forty-five households alternate hosting St. Nicholas and then that each receives the procession at iii-year intervals. Between 25 and 100 people get together at each site, including members of the household and family and friends from throughout the country.
When the bus stops in front of a firm, the choir begins ringing their bells, singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Boondocks" equally they leave the autobus and enter the domicile or approach an alternative site such as a carport of out-edifice where hosts and guests await. The choir, withal singing, gathers in the center of the assembly. The song concludes when a baritone member of the choir sings "You mean the large fat human with the long white bristles?," to which the choir responds in unison, "he's coming to town." The last line is the cue for St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Black Peter, who have remained subconscious, to enter. St. Nicholas walks into the crowd and in a disguised voice greets those in attendance. He specifically addresses the children, collectively rather than individually, stating that he hopes that they have been practiced during the year and have obeyed their parents and teachers. St. Nicholas then circulates through the gathering greeting adults with a handshake and children with a light touch on to the caput much like administering a blessing. Santa Claus also greets everyone, and with Black Peter's assistance he gives each child a few pieces of processed. Apart from the very young who may react to St. Nicholas's elaborate costume with uncertainty or even fear, he (along with his entourage) is viewed with a mixture of awe and excitement. The choir continues singing until the 3 have greeted everyone and have distributed candy. The songs include German language carols like "Ihr Kinderlein," "O Tannenbaum" and "Stille Nacht," and songs in English like "Silvery Bells," "Joy to the World," and "The First Noel." After St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Black Peter have greeted everyone, Santa Claus throws whatever remaining candy onto the floor causing a mad scramble every bit the children, and even a few adults, blitz to take hold of treats. Then St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Black Peter quickly render to the bus to avoid being recognized by the spectators. In fact, their performance is considered highly successful if they remain anonymous the entire evening. Choir members remain for a brief period visiting and partaking of refreshments provided at each household before rejoining St. Nicholas, Santa Claus, and Black Peter on the motorbus. This routine continues at every finish. Subsequently the concluding visit, the passenger vehicle begins the trip back to the church hall. To acknowledge the efforts of everyone, the group begins a chant of "two, 4, half-dozen, eight, who do nosotros appreciate," followed by the name of a participant. 4 The chant is repeated until all participants have been named. Upon arriving at the church hall, everyone removes and packs away costumes and makeup, then they rejoin celebrants at the various host homes.
St Nicholas greets kid during the Banquet of St. Nicholas celebration, 1991. Photo: Pat Mire.
On the surface, St. Nicholas seems to be a traditional German practice that was brought to Louisiana by the Roberts Cove founders and which has survived with slight modification into the present. However, comments from older Roberts Cove residents indicate that the celebration differs considerably from that of 50 years ago. One female person Roberts Cove native stated that in an earlier version of the St Nicholas holiday, "We used to not take the Bishop [the St. Nicholas character]. We just had all the young boys . . if you lot had money to get buy yous a Santa Claus adjust y'all would jump on the truck bed and they would ride around and go from house to house." The aforementioned person indicated that the conduct of the visitors inspired fear amongst children.
All the immature boys of the neighborhood dressed as Santa Claus, and they were mean. They would come in with sticks and chains and all they would says was in German, "beten sie" which means pray, and if you didn't get on your knees and said a lilliputian prayer they would take the little switch and switch y'all . . . and one of them had a sack on his back which was supposed to have been to put the bad children in. 5
An elderly human being also recalled the celebration equally a traumatic result.
When I was a kid this feast of St. Nicholas, I mean information technology was rough. There but was cypher but Santa Clauses and I mean I was just shaking in my [interrupted by some other man who states] "They come there with bondage." [original speaker resumes] chains, ropes, and black jack whips like that and if you didn't get on your knees and start proverb your prayers, male child, they prisoner of war [indicates a blow from a whip]. The thing of St. Nick and the Santa Claus coming and saying pray . . . they were trying to portray St. Nick which was supposed to have been a Bishop and they were supposed to be good holy children for St Nick.
There could exist resistance to the visitors by older children, peculiarly those who had misbehaved during the year, and who would hide rather than submit to the demands of the Santa Clauses. However, this resulted in a thorough search for the miscreants who would be whipped if discovered (Boudreaux 1968). Children who behaved and prayed were given pecans or other treats. Adults were also involved in what was in many respects a festive occasion. "We always had good and drinks . . . you invited your relatives . . then at the last homes that man, which was an uncle of mine. He had a party for the characters and everything and that'southward where they really partied until all hours of the night."
The rowdy and frightening elements of the early on Roberts Cove custom are similar to some manifestations of the St. Nicholas holiday in one case found in various portions of western Europe (De Groot 1965). A clarification from The netherlands notes that the "St. Nicholas rounds" unfolded in a rollicking, drunken fashion and consisted of "local youths" with a leader representing St. Nicholas who traveled the streets after night making dissonance with chains, bells, buckets, and horns. They would hunt other youngsters, especially girls, who if captured, would "get their faces blackened" and be "ragged and teased" (De Groot 1965:26). The outrageous behavior of youths may be a mutation of Catholic holidays which had temporarily empowered members of the church building hierarchy within the context of often rowdy rites of reversal during feast days (MacKenzie 1987; Curtis 1995). Such holidays include the Feast of the Holy Innocents and the Banquet of the Boy Bishop. The feast of the Holy Innocents became identified with the Banquet of Fools, a Catholic reinterpretation of the earlier Roman Saturnalia tradition, that by the Eye Ages unfolded over four days in late Dec linked to the Cosmic liturgical calendar (Weiser 1958). Historic Dec 28, the feat of the Holy Innocents was devoted to choir boys and seems to have merged with the Banquet of the Boy Bishop which had shifted to December 28 in the 11th century. The male child bishop was a youth who personified Pope Gregory IV, the patron of schools and choirs. He was accompanied by ii youths who served as chaplains while the bishop "examined his fellow students . . . besides adults , with questions on religious doctrine. He gave praise or reproach and distributed presents or punishment" (Weiser 1958, Boudreaux 1968). However, variations of this official celebration evolved into irreverent abuses" that became feature of the Feast of Fools. Then in the 14th century, the Banquet of the Male child Bishop was moved to December 5, the eve of the Feast of St. Nicholas (Weiser 1958), Boudreaux 1968), although activities rooted in the Male child Bishop tradition seem to have continued to occur in late December in some areas. Weiser (1958) suggests that after this shift, the personification of St. Gregory IV was gradually transformed to that of St. Nicholas. This undoubtedly reflected the rising popularity of St. Nicholas in the centuries subsequently his introduction to Europe. However, "unofficial" versions of the original Male child Bishop festivities linked to earlier Banquet of Fools "excesses" now occurring on December v, with little to no command past church authorities, apparently survived and resulted in the behavior found in the peripheral St. Nicholas "rounds" described past afterwards writers.
Many Roberts Cove settlers originated in the Geilenkirchen region of High german bordering The netherlands (McCord 1970, Kondert 1988) where rowdy St. Nicholas rounds were common, so it is not surprising that a variation of this general tradition diffused to Louisiana. However related customs were brought to other areas of North America by Germanic settlers, resulting in a broad distribution of traditions related to the St. Nicholas rounds. I example is the Belsnickling tradition in Pennsylvania that was introduced by German and Swiss settlers who became role of the population later known equally Pennsylvania Dutch (Shoemaker 1959). 6 This custom featured the character Belsnickle derived from Pelznickel (Fur Nicholas), a version of St. Nicholas common in western Deutschland (Weiser 1958). In Pennsylvania, the traditional rural Belsnickle was a lone graphic symbol who visited homes to punish and reward children. However, Alfred Shoemaker (1959) asserts that through acculturation among Dutch, High german, Scotch-Irish, and English settlers, traditions associated with St. Nicholas and Christmas Eve mingled. Much of the beliefs that in one case occurred on St. Nicholas Eve was moved to the Christmas flavour and combined with Christmas mumming practices from the British Isles. 7
In that location are similarities between Belsnickling in Pennsylvania and the St. Nicholas tradition in Roberts Cove. Belsnickels frequently dressed in long robes and beards while other wore masks or, influenced by other mumming traditions, engaged in role reversal by dressing as Native Americans donning greasepaint. Belsnickels would make a dramatic archway by ringing bells, shaking chains, rattling windows and doors, and brandishing willow whips or buggy whips. They would throw treats onto the floor and equally the children rushed to pick up treats, they would whip them while saying, "Volition you pray?" (Shoemaker 1959:83). The Belsnickels would target specific children known to be naughty, for case, good children were often allowed to immediately selection up treats thrown by Belsnickels whereas bad children were switched before they were permitted to gather treats (Shoemaker 1959).
Like Belsnickling in Pennsylvania, the St. Nicholas tradition was somewhat transformed in Roberts Cove. For example, Santa Claus suits became the favorite costume for the touring youths in Roberts Cove. This is not surprising considering that the St. Nicholas celebration began to be celebrated in Louisiana at a time when the character Santa Claus, portrayed in much the same style as the contemporary disguised, red-suited character, was becoming a popular civilisation icon in American society. This imagery resulted from the development of St. Nicholas into Santa Claus in the United states and was spread by the pop works of American authors like Washington Irving, Clement Moore, and the cartoonist Thomas Nast (Curtis 1995). Consequently, in Roberts Cove, the character of St. Nicholas became represented by the American grapheme Santa Claus which as obviously similar in appearance to various permutations of St. Nicholas. This was, withal, a superficial change because rather than behaving like the chivalrous American Santa Claus, Roberts Cove youth continued to act out the intimidating office of St. Nicholas rooted in the before St. Nicholas rounds.
The adoption of the Santa Claus costume is interesting in itself, but given the neat contrast between past and present St. Nicholas it is necessary to explore the process by which the malevolent Santa Clauses/St. Nicholas of the past were replaced by the kind, gentle St. Nicholas Eve character of the present. Oral history in Roberts Cove attributed this transformation to the deportment of a Dutch priest who ministered to the community from 1952 to 1955. After experiencing the local custom, he informed the community that their St. Nicholas celebration was a negative portrayal of the holiday.
He [the priest] told them, "yous all have the incorrect impression of St. Nick." He said, "if you all are calling this St. Nick now, you all are not portraying St. Nick in the right style. St. Nick was a kind and gentle man." Then he is the one who started all the custom that is now in Roberts Cove. . .
The priest urged the replacement of the rowdy Santa Claus characters with St. Nicholas and his servant Blackness Peter. The priest's perception of the "correct" St. Nicholas characters and the celebration in general reflected versions of the vacation which overshadowed the riotous, peripheral St. Nicholas rounds (or similar customs) in both Holland and Germany. In Holland, the squad of St. Nicholas and Black Peter (supposedly a "blackamoor" who served equally an assistant to the legendary bishop) are popularly identified with St. Nicholas Eve by both Catholics and Protestants. The St. Nicholas and Black Peter costumes introduced to Roberts Cove are nearly identical to those described in early 20th-century Dutch accounts (Jungman 1904). Likewise, their behavior is much the aforementioned because the post-obit description of a St. Nicholas visit in Holland.
. . . a big white sheet is laid out in the middle of the room and circular it stand all the children. . . before the expected fourth dimension of the Saint'south arrival they begin to sing songs to welcome him into their midst . . . The first intimation the children get of the Saint's inflow is a shower of sweets bursting in upon them. And so, amongst the full general scramble which ensues, St. Nicholas all of a sudden makes his advent (Hough 1901:123). eight
Following St. Nicholas' entrance, Black Peter would assist him in distributing treats to the children. While these characters were much more friendly than their counterparts in marginal variants of the St. Nicholas celebration, there was a threat of punishment. For case, in some areas of The netherlands and Germany, St. Nicholas came not only to advantage proficient children with treats but often with a stick/switch [maybe a variation of the Bishop's crozier], or volume of sins containing the names of naughty children (Russ 1982). In Dutch celebrations, Black Peter frequently held a sack which was supposed to be used to carry bad children off to Spain, once a stronghold of the "Moors" (Walwin 1971, Curtis 1995). This also occurred in areas of Germany; the difference being that St. Nicholas is accompanied past a dissimilar and somewhat more threatening grapheme named Ruprecht (Norman 1993). However, these actions announced to have involved merely the potential for penalisation rather than the actual violence directed toward children in the St. Nicholas rounds and Belsnickling. ix
Given the prove it is articulate that the characters and practice introduced by the priest were derived directly from the "mainstream" Dutch St. Nicholas tradition, which is similar to some German customs. Thus, information technology was only in the early on 1950s that the gentle St. Nicholas and his servant Black Peter appeared in Roberts Cove. All the same, one Santa Claus was retained because according to a resident:
Our custom of Santa Claus is merely an American version, that is where the Santa Claus function comes in. When the priest changed all the Santa Claus, he wanted to do away with the Santa Claus, he said nosotros will take the Bishop and little Black Peter and we tin keep 1 American Santa Claus for the American tradition.
Withal, the alone Santa Claus is related to his Roberts Cove predecessors is appearance only, because he behaves in the same manner as the kind Santa Claus experienced past other American children. In Roberts Cove, for the evening of Dec v, Santa Claus is secondary to St. Nicholas, though his character returns to prominence at Christmas.
Given the drastic changes in Roberts Cove St. Nicholas it is interesting to consider the meaning that the event now has for the customs terms of its "Germanness." How is it that a recently introduced custom from Holland has become such a salient symbol of contemporary German language culture and identity for the High german-Americans of Roberts Cove? I would advise that through a "Germanization" process St. Nicholas became accepted as function of what some residents refer to as "Louisiana German civilisation." this involved several interrelated factors: the circumstances under which the Dutch St. Nicholas was introduced, the integration of German language cultural content into the new tradition, the spatial linkage of the earlier St. Nicholas tradition, the passage of time since the new St. Nicholas was introduced.
The modified celebration was legitimatized considering a priest who exerted considerable spiritual and social influence in the community initiated the alter through his insistence that the new version of the celebration was the proper fashion to celebrate St. Nicholas. In this sense, the community was less interested in the new event's specific bespeak of origin than with the fact that it was proposed as the "correct" way to do it. That the customs would not be particularly resistant to this change is not surprising if 1 compares it to the 19th-century decline of Belsnickling. This seems to accept occurred in part considering there was increasing of the harsh treatment of children during Belsnickling (Shoemaker 1959).
Not long after the new St. Nicholas was introduced, the customs began a cultural renaissance that revived or introduced practices associated with German civilization in customs events, especially those organized with the cooperation of St. Leo's Cosmic church, long a breastwork of German cultural practices (McCord 1970; Kondert 1988). At this time the church building choir, which had learned German songs from older community members, began to back-trail the St. Nicholas procession and sing Christmas songs in German language. These songs now help to set the cultural tone of the celebration.
American Christmas songs have been altered and serve to localize the event. For instance, the song "Argent Bells" opens with, "Silver Bells, Silver Bells, St. Nick has come to the children" (rather than "Christmas has come up to the metropolis"). Another line states, "Cove is waiting"(rather than "City is waiting") referring to the community'south anticipation of St. Nicholas's inflow. The inclusion of the line "Cove is waiting" roots the celebration in Roberts Cove, usually referred to as "the cove" past residents. For Roberts Cove residents and their non-High german neighbors, the surface area is viewed as a German language region despite a various population and in fact, some not-Germans have referred to the area as "German Cove." Thus Roberts Cove is viewed as a sort of miniature German homeland for people of High german descent throughout the land. The fact that the celebration occurs in German "space" and has been modified to this locale serves to link ritual to place, and identify to civilisation, and reconstitutes St. Nicholas as a German tradition in the eyes of Germans and non-Germans.
St. Nicholas Eve celebrations too retain some of the structure of the earlier celebration although obviously in a much less rowdy form. The celebration withal unfolds every bit a tour in which the visits are hosted and attended by members of the aforementioned social network. This provides a setting for interaction among family and friends who are scattered throughout the surface area and beyond, because festivities begin well before the inflow of St. Nicholas and ofttimes go along long after the procession departs from each dwelling.
The passage of fourth dimension must also exist considered in the Germanization procedure. Elderly residents clearly remember the earlier version of the holiday, whereas those of centre age accept less specific recollection of past St. Nicholas Eves. The older generations are ofttimes the nearly ardent proponents of the value of the tradition and its identification every bit High german. For example, a centre-aged hostess at one house and middle-age participants at other homes readily identified St. Nicholas as an "old German custom." An elderly resident of Roberts Cove who is a key effigy in organizing the effect stressed its importance by stating that St. Nicholas is "the biggest tradition here we accept and that is something we cannot laissez passer it up [let it disappear]." Taking their elders' perspective, for the young, the holiday in its electric current manifestation is the only one they accept e'er known. For young and erstwhile akin, their mutual interpretation of the contemporary St. Nicholas commemoration every bit a German result is largely shared: it is what Richard Handler and Jocelyn Linnekin describe equally a "present-tense understanding generated from the context and meanings of the present" (1984:281). This is considering public memory, which Steven Hoelscher (1998) argues is inevitably focused on the present, tin oftentimes subsume different individual perspectives of tradition into a single image and re-bandage it in terms of the contemporary. Taken collectively, the diverse features of St. Nicholas' "Germanization" represent a meaningful synthesis of quondam, new, and modified elements. This "balance betwixt stability and change, between the indelible and the novel" (Stern 1991:xii) has resulted in what is in many respects a uniquely Louisiana High german custom that is kinder and gentler than its precursor.
The St. Nicholas holiday has a long complex history in both Europe and the United States. The circumstances under which the St. Nicholas tradition considering kinder and gentler in Roberts Cove and the electric current community-level "understanding" of it as a Louisiana German cultural practice provide a useful case study of how quickly and completely a recently introduced and modified custom can be transformed into a time-honored tradition.
Sources
Bauman, Richard. 1972. Belsnickling in a Nova Scotia Island Community. Western Folklore 31: 229-43.
Boudreaux, Florence. 1968. German Customs Withal Retained in Roberts Cove. Attakapas Gazette three(ii):16-22.
Cagle, Madelaine. 1996. "Neither Spared Nor Spoiled:" The Mardi Gras Chase in Choupique, Louisiana. Louisiana Folklore Miscellany 11:17-28.
Curtis, Bruce. 1995. The Strange Nativity of Santa Claus: From Artemis the Goddess and Nicholas the Saint. Journal of American Culture 18(four):17-32.
DeGroot, Adriaanus. 1965. Saint Nicholas: A Psychoanalytic Written report of His History and Myth. The Hague: Mouton.
Glassie, Henry. 1975. All Silver and No Brass: An Irish Christmas Mumming. Bloomington: Indiana Academy Printing.
Hough, P.M. 1901. Dutch Life in Town and State. New York and London: K.P. Putnam's Sons.
Handler, Richard and Jocelyn Linnekin. 1984. Tradition: Genuine or Spurious. Journal of American Folklore 97:273-90.
Hoelscher, Steven. 1998. Tourism, Indigenous Retention, and the Other-Directed Place. Ecumene 5(iv):369-98.
Jungman, Nico. 1904. The netherlands. London: Adams and Charles Blackness.
Kondert, Reinhart. 1988. From Geilenkrchen to Acadia Parish: A History of the Germans of Roberts Cove, 1880-1987. Lafayette: Academy of Southwestern Louisiana, Center of Louisiana Studies.
Mackenzie, Neil. 1987. Male child Into Bishop: A Festive Function-Reversal. History Today (Dec): 10-16.
McCord, Stanley 50. 1970. A Historical and Linguistic Written report of the German Settlement at Roberts Cove. Ph.D. dissertation, Louisiana Land University.
Norman, Karin. 1993. Celebrating Nikolaus Day: Credo and Emotion in a German Children's Ritual. Ethnology 23:325-38.
Russ, Jennifer. 1982. High german Festivals and Customs. London: Oswald Wolf.
Sexton, Rocky. 1996. Cajuns, Germans, and Les Americains: A Historical Anthropology of Cultural and Demographic Transformations in Southwest Louisiana, 1880 to Present. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Iowa.
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Notes
I would like to thank Peter Kivisto for commenting on an before draft of this paper.
1. St. Nicholas is celebrated in two other communities in southwest Louisiana: Tiptop, a rural customs located several miles west of Roberts Cove, and Broussard which is located a few miles south of Lafayette. The celebration was introduced to these communities through out-migration by Roberts Cove residents, and then the gimmicky events are very similar.
2. Data on the contemporary St. Nicholas and its past transformations in Roberts Cove is derived from observation of the event in 1994 and follow-upwardly interviews with community members. Interview tapes and fieldnotes are in the author's possession.
three. The custom of blackfacing is also institute in nearby Cajun Mardi Gras groups. All the same, it is a course of generic racial inversion as opposed to the practice in Robert's Cove which is linked to a specific supposedly historical character. Because of its high visibility, blackfacing in Mardi Gras has drawn criticism from those who view it as racist. The Black Peter character, all the same, has never been subject to such criticism. This is because of the limited context in which St. Nicholas occurs and the "depression central" nature of the event.
iv. The "two-four-6-8" chant is clearly a version of the common American high school cheer. Its presence indicates ongoing American influence of the St. Nicholas celebration.
five. The custom of forcing children to pray under the care for of whipping is establish in the Mardi Gras celebration of two Cajun communities in southeast Louisiana (Cagle 1996). Still, given the origins of the St. Nicholas custom discussed later in this paper, the similarities between the two celebrations are due to parallel developments in various continental European traditions rather than cross-cultural borrowing in Louisiana.
vi. Belsnickling was introduced to other areas of North America, for example, Nova Scotia (Bauman 1972).
seven. For a description of the mumming tradition in Republic of ireland, run into Glassie 1975.
viii. As previously noted, the throwing of treats into the midst of children is also present in the Roberts Cove commemoration. The main difference is that in Roberts Cove it is done equally a conclusion to the visit rather than equally a function of St. Nicholas' initial appearance.
9. For example, in Bavaria, St. Nicholas may chide children for misbehavior but the only concrete contact involves touching children lightly on the check with his staff (Norman 1993).
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