PunchesAtOceanWaves

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Le Père Fouettard (French for The Whipping Father) is a character who accompanies St. Nicholas in his rounds during St. Nicholas’ Day dispensing lumps of coal and/or floggings to the naughty children while St. Nick gives gifts to the well behaved.

The most popular story about the origin of Le Père Fouettard was first told in the year 1150. An Inn Keeper (or in other versions a butcher) captures three boys who appear to be wealthy and on their way to enroll in a religious boarding school. Along with his wife, he kills the children in order to rob them. One gruesome version tells that they drug the children, slit their throats, cut them into pieces, and stew them in a barrel. St. Nicholas discovers the crime and resurrects the children. After this, Le Père Fouettard repents and becomes St. Nick’s partner.