The Samichlaus Parade

Samichlaus Parade on Vimeo

On Sunday evening, Matt & I walked over to the Banhofstrasse to check out Zurich's Samichlaus Parade. A group called the "St. Nikolaus-Gesellschaft der Stadt Zürich" formed in 1947 with the intent to bring the Christmas spirit of St. Nick to the poor and handicapped children on Zurich. Dozens of St. Nick's are accompanied a controversial figure in the folklore of Christmas, Schmutzli,or so is called here in Switzerland. While Schmutzli has about a half dozen other names, meaning, and origin, depending on which country you happen to reside in (and who your storytellers are for that matter), here Schmutzli is thought of as the one to do the dirty work for St. Nick. If a child is bad, then he or she is thrown into Schmutzli's bag. However, you now often see Schmutzli handing out candies and other good things to the children in an attempt to take the scary out of his figure and endear him a little more in the hearts of the children.