Black Peter is a Christmas tradition in several European countries; he accompanies St. Nicholas, and punishes the bad children. He was usually depicted as an African or Moor, and portrayed in parades and pageants by a Caucasian gent in blackface and fanciful “exotic” silks and trappings. Due to changing racial and cultural mores, he’s now usually shown as a chimney sweep.
He’s also the subject of a card game, which is apparently much like “Old Maid.” In this version, from Obchodní Tiskárny, the players match scenes from folktales. I found it in Prague a number of years ago; it has instructions in both Czech and Slovak. There’s an anomaly here; an illustrator is credited: Ludek Manácek (with hacheks over the e and n; I discovered that Czech diacriticals are beyond my computer ken).
(Posted by Doug Skinner)
6 responses so far ↓
1 Gail // Dec 14, 2008 at 9:40 am
When I was in Spain I was with some friends from the Basque country and Barcelona and they told me about this. (I’m sure it has roots as anti-Moor, as many of the Spanish saints do; like St. Michael (which is “our patron of policemen”) is called “MataMoro”‘; the Moor slayer….)I think this Black Xmas character also lays a “turd” somewhere under the Xmas tree. The kids of course all love him, even though they are supposed to be afraid of him…..I’ll ask my friends more about him….tis the season!
2 Lisa // Dec 15, 2008 at 5:39 pm
Is that his tongue sticking out?
3 Doug // Dec 15, 2008 at 7:33 pm
It looks like it, doesn’t it? On the box, though, it looks more like his lower lip. Color separations are tricky.
4 mamie // Dec 16, 2008 at 12:45 am
He looks like a monkey!
5 Gail // Dec 16, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I asked a friend of mine in Spain, and they gave me more info. the carachter is Catalan, called “El Caganer” which means “the Shitting Man” or “The Fertilizer”. He was a figure in the Xmas Cribs of the 18thCentury. At that time, it was believed that with this fertile droppings, the soil of the crib would become rich and productive for the coming year. This friend didn’t think it had any connection to a moor, but rather a local peasant. I definitely saw this figurine in black face in a christmas storefront window while I was in Bilbao several years ago.
6 name Children’s Card Games (189) // Dec 23, 2012 at 10:19 pm
[…] Peter” is a popular game in Eastern Europe; here are three other examples. This one was published by Grafika-Grafoprint, in Zagreb, Croatia, as “Crni […]