The day of Saint Nicholas in Hungary
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The figure of the man giving presents in a red cloak, mitre with a crook originates from Catholic regions. He is Saint Nicholas, the folkish figure of the bishop of Myra. He is the patron saint of – among others – children and students, which is why he is considered as the model of today’s gift-giving Santa Claus. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, a practice celebrated on his feast day, which falls on the 6th of December in Hungary.
Saint Nicholas is called Mikulás in Hungary. Children clean their boots and put them out in the window on the evening of the 5th of December before they go to sleep. By the next morning they will have something in the boots, depending on whether they were good or bad. Mikulás gives chocolate and various fruits, candies and toys to those children who behaved well during the year, but those who were naughty only get “virgács”. It is a pile of gold-coloured birch twigs wrapped in a piece of red paper, and it symbolises punishment. “Virgács” is given by a “krampusz”, who is a fearful and devilish creature, a mean elf, mostly represented with horns and long fur.
Legend has it that the bishop once threw three purses filled with gold coins into the house of an impoverished nobleman through the window so that his three daughters could marry justly. Many people think that this is why the gifts are put into the window on the 6th of December.
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