Page:The International Folk-Lore Congress of the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, July, 1893.djvu/561

 CHRISTMAS USAGES AND BELIEFS IN SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN.

BY DR. HEINRICH CARSTENS.

The personage presiding over the Christmas festival in Schleswig-Holstein is generally called Kienjees, Kindjees, or Klingeest, these being corruptions of the expression Kind Jesus (Child Jesus). He brings the presents to the children and occasionally punishes the naughty ones. They give him various residences, according to the locality, either in the nearest mountains, or on the church steeple, or even in the loft of the house.

I.—General Usages.—At Friedrichstadt, the preliminary celebration of Christmas begins as early as the sixth day of December with what is known as the Sünner-Klaas. It was customary, in former years, to bake big cakes weighing from one to twelve pounds, and play for them, the cakes representing St. Nicholas. An essential part of the feast was a boar or hog made of rye bread six or seven inches high, with a gilt snout and tail and having golden rings around its knees. Business men put the goods they have exhibited for sale on a revolving disk and raffle them off. There are a number of rhymes remaining in popular use containing the name Sünner-Klaas which are supposed to be remnants from the time of the Reformation. One of them runs as follows:

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