PseudoPod 895: The Belsnickel
Show Notes
From the author: ”I loved the stories my German great-grandmother shared about belsnickels – friends and neighbors who dressed in big fur coats and frightful masks and went house to house on the nights around Christmas to sing, visit, play music, and give the kids a little scare. It was a tradition similar to trick-or-treat at Halloween, but the belsnickels often carried switches with them and would jokingly threaten to spank the children who had been “bad” that year. My great-grandmother told me she had been afraid of them and would hide when they visited. I experienced a belsnickel visit only once in my childhood, and it was both festive and terrifying.”
The Belsnickel
by Liz Zimmers
Mary Alice Sherwood disappeared on Halloween night. Every bit of her, right down to her crooked bunny ears and the powder puff tail pinned to her white coat, vanished into the chilly, bonfire-smoky dark of her quiet Woodside suburb. She was eight years old, trick-or-treating with her peers under the relaxed supervision of a young sitter, and she was never seen again. The respectable households of Woodside shrank in upon themselves in shock and disbelief for a time. Neighborhood watches became vigilant once again, and parents confined their children to their yards. Now, as Christmas approached, holiday furor and excitement displaced the sharpest spur of fear. The Sherwoods’ tragedy had faded a bit from the forefront of neighborhood conversations. After all, no one knew them very well. They kept to themselves, in the lonely cul-de-sac of Hemlock Circle. The search continued for little Mary Alice. the police patrol car still made its rounds several times a day. The residents of Woodside would have gathered in sympathy around the Sherwoods had they been welcome. They were not. (Continue Reading…)
