The Terrifying Christmas Scarecrow
The Christmas Scarecrow is the first of this year’s Dark Christmas Traditions that Country Fox will be exploring. This creepy character is one of the many anti-Santa figures that appears at this time of year. While the Christmas Scarecrow doesn’t have the same draw as Krampus, he is still quite creepy.
How it Began
A man named Hans Trapp lived during the 1400’s in the French regions of Alsace and Lorraine. He was rich and powerful. Many of the villagers feared him. His thirst for power knew no end. Hans would do just about anything to gain more riches and power.
He began dabbling in the black arts. He used cruel magic to increase his power. This wasn’t enough for Hans. Eventually, Hans began to summon demons and eventually the Devil. He made a deal with the Devil in an attempt to gain even more power.
The surrounding community couldn’t handle it anymore. The villagers sent their clergy to the Pope for help. The Pope found Trapp to be an atrocious and ungodly man. He excommunicated him and took his lands. Trapp was banished from the area.
The Transformation
Trapp was penniless and abandoned. He wandered the countryside. Trapp eventually constructed a makeshift home in the mountains of Bavaria where he started to go insane. He began fantasizing about eating human flesh. He spent his time figuring out the best way to acquire a human to eat.
Trapp then went about his plans. He dressed himself as a scarecrow. He shoved sticks and straw in his shirt and pants to look the part. Trapp waited by a lonely road. Eventually, a small shepherd boy came across the Scarecrow. Trapp pounced on the boy and stabbed him with a sharpened stick. Trapp took him back to this mountain home. He cut the boy into pieces and roasted the flesh.
Right when he was about to take the first bite, a bolt of lightning struck Trapp. When Trapp fell, he hit his head and died. Parents would warn their children to behave or else the evil Hans Trapp would come for them in his scarecrow attire. Eventually, he was paired with Santa Claus. Santa and all his variations travel around rewarding good children while one of his many sidekicks punish the naughty children.
Based on a True Story?
It is beleived that the story of the Christmas Scarecrow was based on a real person. A knight named Hans von Trotha was born in 1450. He was entrusted with two castles within the Palatine territory. The Palatine territory covered areas of both France and Germany.
Hans von Trotha ended up having a disagreement with a local abbot over his property and possessions. Apparently, one of the castles that he had been given used to belong to the monastery. Von Trotha refused to give the land and possessions back. A feud ensued.
At the height of the feud, von Trotha built a dam that stopped the water supply to the village below. The abbot became enraged and had the dam removed, thus flooding the village. Eventually, the abbot went to the Vatican.
The Pope summoned von Trotha to question him about his loyalty to the church and God. Von Trotha refused to attend this meeting, going so far as to accuse the Pope of immorality. The Pope excommunicated von Trotha. Von Trotha retired to his other castle and died a few years later.
While it isn’t known if he made deals with the Devil, he was disliked by the townspeople. He was cruel, contributed to the flooding of their village and overtaxed their roadways. All of this contributed to the villagers casting him as a “Black Knight”. His spirit would restlessly roam the forest hills.
More Dark Traditions to Come
Like the 1963 Andy Williams Christmas song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” states: There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of old glories of Christmases long, long ago. Ghost stories used to be a part of the seasonal traditions up until the turn of the 20th century.
Winter nights are dark and cold. Before Christianity spread around the globe, pagans of all varieties celebrated the Winter Solstice and Yule. Many believed that the veil between the living world and the dead thinned around Halloween and lasted for a few months. Many ghost stories were told during this time of the year.
Once Christianity began to spread, the old traditions were blended into the new faith. Society saw a big surge in Christmas ghost stories during the Victorian era. Charles Dickens was the first with his “A Christmas Carol”. He followed this with other Christmas ghost stories.
The tradition of telling ghost stories over Christmas began to fade in America in the early 1900’s. But, as with many other traditions, what was old is new again. Once people began looking into Krampus, they started to discover other wonderfully creepy Dark Christmas Traditions. Last year I covered some interesting characters. Read my blog on Gryla, the Christmas Witch.