From Nalujuit to the Yule Cat, here's a look at the monsters of the holiday season
CBC
On Christmas Eve, millions of children drift off to sleep with full confidence that they will be visited in the night by a jolly old elf. Christmas creatures in many cultures, though, are not so benevolent.
In Austria, Schnabelperchten disembowel the untidy, the Icelandic Yule Cat devours the underdressed, and right here at home, the Nalujuit of Labrador come in off the sea ice to kidnap the unwary.
Theoretically, even Santa Claus has a dark side, doling out lumps of coal instead of toys as punishment.
In some parts of the world, Santa has outsourced the dirty work of disciplining wayward children to sinister assistants.
You may have heard of the Krampus, a devilish figure with horns and a long, pointed tongue, who accompanies Saint Nicholas from house to house in the Alps on the night of December 5. While Saint Nick rewards good children with sweets and small gifts, Krampus beats naughty ones with a birch switch.
The French Père Fouettard, otherwise known as Father Flogger, resembles Father Christmas, with his warm robes and long beard, but unlike his companion he carries a whip that he uses to mete out spankings.
In Haiti, while Tonton Noël, or Uncle Christmas, leaves gifts for well-behaved children, Tonton Macoute — Uncle Gunnysack — snatches misbehaving ones from their beds, stuffs them in his bag, and steals them away forever. Haiti's secret police, founded in 1959, were nicknamed the Tonton Macoutes because they, too, had the power to make people disappear.
Other Yuletide monsters work alone, appearing at various times over the holiday season to terrorize their communities.
Fail to dress up for Christmas in Iceland, and you might find yourself a real fashion victim. On Christmas Eve, the Jólakötturinn, or Yule Cat, prowls the small island nation, on the hunt for people wearing old clothes.
The pet of the ogress Grýla, he's no ordinary housecat. The Yule Cat is humongous, with glowing eyes and whiskers sharp as needles. If you should meet him in the dark, the only way to save yourself from being eaten is to show him the new clothes you were given for Christmas.
The legend of the Yule Cat may have arisen as a way to encourage farm labourers to finish chores like sheep shearing and animal slaughter by Yuletide so there would be enough supplies to make fresh winter clothes for everyone. Later, parents started using the cat to frighten children into working hard during the year to be guaranteed a gift of new clothing at Christmastime.
In Wales, it's a gruesome horse rather than a gigantic cat that stalks the long midwinter nights. There's no need to hide from this creature, though: to defeat it, you'll just need to best it in an impromptu poetry slam.
Chatting in the glow of the firelight over the 12 days of Christmas, a family might be interrupted by the tap-tap-tapping of bones at the windowpane. Outside, they'll find an imposing figure — tall and thin, with a horse skull for a head.
This fantastical beast, the Mari Lwyd, challenges the household's occupants to a battle of wits and words, singing bawdy rhymes that must be matched by the residents.
P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch is looking for 50 substitute bus drivers, and it'll be recruiting at three job fairs on Saturday, June 8. The job fairs are located at the Atlantic Superstore in Montague, Royalty Crossing in Charlottetown, and the bus parking lot of Three Oaks Senior High in Summerside. All three run from 9 a.m. until noon. Dave Gillis, the director of transportation and risk management for the Public Schools Branch, said the number of substitute drivers they're hiring isn't unusual. "We are always looking for more. Our drivers tend to have an older demographic," he said.