Santa Claus Isn't Coming to Town...
Because Ježíšek is!
As a kid, I have vague memories of learning about the different names that Santa Claus had around the world: Father Christmas, Père Noël, St. Nicholas, Papa Noel...but I don't ever remember learning about Ježíšek, possibly because the image of Ježíšek is so different from those other gift-bringers as to be irreconcilable. This, of course, might create problems for the ongoing viability of the Santa myth.
Why? Because Ježíšek is not an old man in winter clothes with a beard, or anything like that. In fact, it's hard to get an accurate description of him at all. If you try a Google image search for Ježíšek, you're as likely to get Santa photos as anything else. When you do find him, he sometimes looks like this
or this
or sometimes even
Let me explain.
Ježíšek (pronounced YEH-zhee-shek) is the traditional gift-giver in the Czech Republic and in much of the rest of Central Europe. He is, literally, the Little/Baby Jesus (a Slavic take on the German Protestant Christkind, created by Martin Luther to put the Christ back in Christmas). He celebrates his own birthday by distributing presents. Isn't that nice of him? On December 24th, known here as Štědrý den (pronounced SHTYEH-dree den, translated as "Generous Day"), Ježíšek delivers presents. Somehow. From somewhere.
When I first learned of Ježíšek, I started asking my students about him. There were certain facts that were agreed upon: he is the baby or child Jesus, he brings presents on Christmas Eve (Generous Day), and there's a bell involved usually. Aside from that, it's pretty vague. Unlike Santa Claus, who's a fairly modern creation, Ježíšek goes back 400 some years. Also very, very unlike Santa Claus, Ježíšek is not used commercially. Santa's imagery and nature has essentially been created and solidified by commerce and the commercial media. Ježíšek, on the other hand, is almost never used in advertising, and there's no canonical account of his physical appearance or personality.
As far as I can tell, Ježíšek is either literally the baby Jesus, or maybe a toddler, or possibly even a boy as old as 5 or 6. He may be dressed in swaddling clothes, or a loincloth like a cherub (he definitely feels like a Cupid descendant in some imagery), or a cute little winter get-up complete with winter hat. How he gets around is indeterminate, although some think he rides a cloud or a star or something. Or maybe he just flies. Where he lives is also unclear, with no North Pole to go home to. Indeed, as the third image above suggests, there is an argument that Ježíšek isn't physical at all, but rather just an abstract idea of generosity and goodwill in human form. Maybe.
Factual disagreements aside, his role is pretty clear. On Generous Day, Czech people gather after sundown for the traditional meal (usually featuring carp), and then after dinner some of the adults will perhaps take the younger guests outside or to a room away from the Christmas tree to look for Ježíšek flying through the sky. Given the inchoate nature of his physical descriptions, I'm not entirely sure what they're looking for, but never mind. After a few moments, a bell is heard from the room with the tree, and everyone rushes in to find that Ježíšek has visited and left presents for everyone. I also am not sure whether Ježíšek rings a bell himself or just makes the sound of a bell when he leaves. But again, never mind.
Over the years, Ježíšek has been challenged by a variety of other figures. Ded Moroz, the Russian Old Man Frost figure who brings presents at New Year's, was pushed during the days of the USSR as a more secular, and therefore more Communist, alternative to Ježíšek. However, even in quite secular Czechia, he never really caught on and seems to have vanished as soon the Velvet Revolution took place. More recently, Santa Claus himself has been invading. Like many other aspects of American culture, Santa has become a worldwide figure, and various interests have sought to bring him to Czechia. This hasn't really taken hold, even sometimes inspiring some amount of backlash among Czechs. By and large, though, Czechs seem perfectly happy to see Santa used to sell Coke and to view him purely as an American icon of Christmas. Their own traditional Ježíšek suits them just fine.
So, whether your presents are brought by Santa, Ježíšek, or just Amazon Prime, I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. Veselé Vánoce!
*********************************************************************************
For more Czech Christmas highlights, visit my posts on St. Nicholas Day, Christmas Markets, and of course, carp. I also recently did a patron-only podcast about Good King Wenceslaus, and I have another Christmas podcast in the making. To become a patron, which helps supports this blog and everything I do for it, please go to my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/sjcaustenite.
As a kid, I have vague memories of learning about the different names that Santa Claus had around the world: Father Christmas, Père Noël, St. Nicholas, Papa Noel...but I don't ever remember learning about Ježíšek, possibly because the image of Ježíšek is so different from those other gift-bringers as to be irreconcilable. This, of course, might create problems for the ongoing viability of the Santa myth.
Why? Because Ježíšek is not an old man in winter clothes with a beard, or anything like that. In fact, it's hard to get an accurate description of him at all. If you try a Google image search for Ježíšek, you're as likely to get Santa photos as anything else. When you do find him, he sometimes looks like this
or this
Let me explain.
Ježíšek (pronounced YEH-zhee-shek) is the traditional gift-giver in the Czech Republic and in much of the rest of Central Europe. He is, literally, the Little/Baby Jesus (a Slavic take on the German Protestant Christkind, created by Martin Luther to put the Christ back in Christmas). He celebrates his own birthday by distributing presents. Isn't that nice of him? On December 24th, known here as Štědrý den (pronounced SHTYEH-dree den, translated as "Generous Day"), Ježíšek delivers presents. Somehow. From somewhere.
When I first learned of Ježíšek, I started asking my students about him. There were certain facts that were agreed upon: he is the baby or child Jesus, he brings presents on Christmas Eve (Generous Day), and there's a bell involved usually. Aside from that, it's pretty vague. Unlike Santa Claus, who's a fairly modern creation, Ježíšek goes back 400 some years. Also very, very unlike Santa Claus, Ježíšek is not used commercially. Santa's imagery and nature has essentially been created and solidified by commerce and the commercial media. Ježíšek, on the other hand, is almost never used in advertising, and there's no canonical account of his physical appearance or personality.
As far as I can tell, Ježíšek is either literally the baby Jesus, or maybe a toddler, or possibly even a boy as old as 5 or 6. He may be dressed in swaddling clothes, or a loincloth like a cherub (he definitely feels like a Cupid descendant in some imagery), or a cute little winter get-up complete with winter hat. How he gets around is indeterminate, although some think he rides a cloud or a star or something. Or maybe he just flies. Where he lives is also unclear, with no North Pole to go home to. Indeed, as the third image above suggests, there is an argument that Ježíšek isn't physical at all, but rather just an abstract idea of generosity and goodwill in human form. Maybe.
Factual disagreements aside, his role is pretty clear. On Generous Day, Czech people gather after sundown for the traditional meal (usually featuring carp), and then after dinner some of the adults will perhaps take the younger guests outside or to a room away from the Christmas tree to look for Ježíšek flying through the sky. Given the inchoate nature of his physical descriptions, I'm not entirely sure what they're looking for, but never mind. After a few moments, a bell is heard from the room with the tree, and everyone rushes in to find that Ježíšek has visited and left presents for everyone. I also am not sure whether Ježíšek rings a bell himself or just makes the sound of a bell when he leaves. But again, never mind.
Over the years, Ježíšek has been challenged by a variety of other figures. Ded Moroz, the Russian Old Man Frost figure who brings presents at New Year's, was pushed during the days of the USSR as a more secular, and therefore more Communist, alternative to Ježíšek. However, even in quite secular Czechia, he never really caught on and seems to have vanished as soon the Velvet Revolution took place. More recently, Santa Claus himself has been invading. Like many other aspects of American culture, Santa has become a worldwide figure, and various interests have sought to bring him to Czechia. This hasn't really taken hold, even sometimes inspiring some amount of backlash among Czechs. By and large, though, Czechs seem perfectly happy to see Santa used to sell Coke and to view him purely as an American icon of Christmas. Their own traditional Ježíšek suits them just fine.
So, whether your presents are brought by Santa, Ježíšek, or just Amazon Prime, I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas. Veselé Vánoce!
*********************************************************************************
For more Czech Christmas highlights, visit my posts on St. Nicholas Day, Christmas Markets, and of course, carp. I also recently did a patron-only podcast about Good King Wenceslaus, and I have another Christmas podcast in the making. To become a patron, which helps supports this blog and everything I do for it, please go to my Patreon page at www.patreon.com/sjcaustenite.
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