Knecht Ruprecht

Knecht Ruprecht is a figure from German mythology whose name means “servant Ruprecht.” He wears a dark hooded robe accented with fur, has a dark bushy beard, and carries switches and a large sack. This sack may be used for carrying off bad children or bringing presents to the good ones. Other times he gives the switches to bad children or their parents rather than using them himself. He may have ashes on his face and may rub ashes in the faces of bad children to mark them. This visual may have been meant to bring to mind blacksmiths, whose image sometimes brought to mind the devil with darkness and fire. The covering of the face with ashes may have been used to obscure the identity ( this is not related to blackface, but it certainly hasn’t aged well.)

Citations:

Ridenour, Al, and Tejaratchi, Sean. The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil. United States, Feral House, 2016.