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The Sack Man (also called the Bag Man or Man with the Bag/Sack) is a figure similar to the bogeyman, portrayed as a man with a sack on his back who carries naughty children away.
Variants of this figure appear all over the world, particularly in Latin countries, such as Spain, Portugal, Italy (where he is known as the vecchio col sacco ("the old man with the sack"), and the countries of Latin America, where it is referred to as el "Hombre del costal", el hombre del saco, or in Portuguese, o homem do saco (all of which mean "the sack/bag man"), and Eastern Europe. Similar legends are found in Haiti and some countries in Asia.
In Spain, el hombre del saco is usually depicted as a mean and impossibly ugly and skinny old man who eats the misbehaving children he collects. The crime of Gádor gave rise to this term [1] because the kidnappers used a gunny sack to carry with the children. [2] In Brazil, o homem do saco is portrayed as a tall and imposing adult male, usually in the form of a vagrant, who carries a sack on his back, and collects mean disobedient children for nefarious purposes. In Chile, Argentina, and particularly in the Southern and Austral Zones, is mostly known as "El Viejo del Saco" or "El Hombre de La Bolsa" ("The old man with the bag") who walks around the neighbourhood every day around supper time. This character is not considered or perceived as a mythical or fantastic creature by children. Instead, he is recognised as an insane murderer that somehow has been accepted by society which allows him to take a child that has been given to him willingly by disappointed parents or any child that is not home by sundown or supper time. In Honduras and Mexico, misbehaving children fear "El Roba Chicos", or child-snatcher, which is very similar to "Hombre del Saco".[ citation needed ]
In Armenia and Georgia, children are threatened by the "Bag Man" who carries a bag and kidnaps those who do not behave.[ citation needed ] In Hungary, the local bogeyman, the mumus, is known as zsákos ember, literally "the person with a sack". In Poland children are frightened by the bebok, babok, or bobok or who is also portrayed as a man with a sack. In the Czech Republic and Slovakia, a similar creature is known: bubák. It's a creature without a typical form, connected with darkness or scary places, making children fear but not taking them away usually. The character of čert , the devil, is used for that instead ("Don't be naughty or čert will take you away!"). In Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, buka ("бука"), Babay ("бабай"), or Babayka ("бабайка") is used to keep children in bed or stop them from misbehaving. 'Babay' means "old man" in Tatar. Children are told that "Babay" is an old man with a bag or a monster, usually hiding under the bed, and that he will take them away if they misbehave (though he is sometimes depicted as having no set appearance).[ citation needed ]
In North India, children are sometimes threatened with the Bori Baba or "Father Sack" who carries a sack in which he places children he captures.[ citation needed ] A similar being, "Abu i Kees" (ابو كيس), literally "The Man with a Bag", appears in Lebanon.[ citation needed ] In Turkey, Kharqyt (Turkish : Harkıt means "Sack Man"- also called Öcü, Böcü or Torbalı) is portrayed as a man with a sack on his back who carries naughty children away to eat or sell them. [3]
In Korea, mangtae yeonggam (망태 영감) an old man (yeonggam) who carries a mesh sack (mangtae) to put his kidnapped children in, thus, "Old Man with a Sack". In some regions, mangtae yeonggam is replaced by mangtae halmeom (망태 할멈), an old woman with a mesh sack.[ citation needed ] In Vietnam, misbehaving children are told that ông ba bị (in the North; literally mister-three-bags) or ông kẹ (in the South) will come in the night and take them away.[ citation needed ]
In Sri Lanka, among the Sinhalese people, elders frighten misbehaving children with Goni Billa, (translates roughly as "sack kidnapper") a scary man carrying a sack who arrives day or night to capture and keep children.[ citation needed ]
In the Western Cape folklore of South Africa, Antjie Somers is a Bogeyman who catches naughty children in a bag slung over his shoulder. Although the name is that of a female, Antjie Somers is traditionally a male figure (often an escaped slave who fled persecution by cross-dressing). [4]
Several countries contrast their version of the sack man with the benign sack carrier Father Christmas. In the Netherlands and Flanders, Zwarte Piet (Dutch for "Black Pete") is a servant of Sinterklaas, who delivers bags of presents on December 5 and takes naughty kids back to Spain in the now empty bags. In some stories, the Zwarte Piets themselves were kidnapped as kids, and the kidnapped kids make up the next generation of Zwarte Piets. In Switzerland, the corresponding figure is known as Schmutzli (derived from Butzli) in German, or Père Fouettard in French. [5] A similar figure, Krampus, appears in the folklore of Alpine countries, sometimes depicted with a sack or washtub to carry children away. [6] In Bulgaria, children are sometimes told that a dark scary monster-like person called Torbalan (Bulgarian : Торбалан, which comes from "торба", meaning a sack, so his name means "Man with a sack") will come and kidnap them with his large sack if they misbehave. He can be seen as the antipode of the Christmas figure Santa Claus (Bulgarian : Дядо Коледа; corresponding to Father Christmas). In Haiti, the Tonton Macoute (Haitian Creole : Uncle Gunnysack) is a giant, and a counterpart of Father Christmas, renowned for abducting bad children by putting them in his knapsack. During the dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier, certain Haitian secret policemen were given the name Tontons Macoutes because they were said also to make people disappear. [7]
François Duvalier, also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician and voodooist who served as the president of Haiti from 1957 until his death in 1971. He was elected president in the 1957 general election on a populist and black nationalist platform. After thwarting a military coup d'état in 1958, his regime rapidly became more autocratic and despotic. An undercover government death squad, the Tonton Macoute, indiscriminately tortured or killed Duvalier's opponents; the Tonton Macoute was thought to be so pervasive that Haitians became highly fearful of expressing any form of dissent, even in private. Duvalier further sought to solidify his rule by incorporating elements of Haitian mythology into a personality cult.
The bogeyman is a mythical creature typically used to frighten children into good behavior. Bogeymen have no specific appearances, and conceptions vary drastically by household and culture, but they are most commonly depicted as masculine or androgynous monsters that punish children for misbehavior. The bogeyman, and conceptually similar monsters can be found in many cultures around the world. Bogeymen may target a specific act or general misbehaviour, depending on the purpose of invoking the figure, often on the basis of a warning from an authority figure to a child. The term is sometimes used as a non-specific personification of, or metonym for, terror – and sometimes the Devil.
The Tonton Macoute or simply the Macoute, was a Haitian paramilitary and secret police force created in 1959 by dictator François "Papa Doc" Duvalier. Haitians named this force after the Haitian mythological bogeyman, Tonton Macoute, who kidnaps and punishes unruly children by snaring them in a gunny sack before carrying them off to be consumed for breakfast. The Macoute were known for their brutality, state terrorism, and assassinations. In 1970, the militia was renamed the Volontaires de la Sécurité Nationale. Though formally disbanded in 1986, its members continued to terrorize the country.
Sinterklaas or Sint-Nicolaas is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Other Dutch names for the figure include De Sint, De Goede Sint and De Goedheiligman. Many descendants and cognates of "Sinterklaas" or "Saint Nicholas" in other languages are also used in the Low Countries, nearby regions, and former Dutch colonies.
The companions of Saint Nicholas are a group of closely related figures who accompany Saint Nicholas throughout the territories formerly in the Holy Roman Empire or the countries that it influenced culturally. These characters act as a foil to the benevolent Christmas gift-bringer, threatening to thrash or abduct disobedient children. Jacob Grimm associated this character with the pre-Christian house spirit which could be benevolent or malicious, but whose mischievous side was emphasized after Christianization. The association of the Christmas gift-bringer with elves has parallels in English and Scandinavian folklore, and is ultimately and remotely connected to the Christmas elf in modern American folklore.
Saint Nicholas Day, also called the "Feast of Saint Nicholas", observed on 6 December in Western Christian countries, and on 19 December in Eastern Christian countries using the old church Calendar, is the feast day of Saint Nicholas of Myra; it falls within the season of Advent. It is celebrated as a Christian festival with particular regard to Saint Nicholas' reputation as a bringer of gifts, as well as through the attendance of church services.
Haitian mythology consists of many folklore stories from different time periods, involving sacred dance and deities, all the way to Vodou. Haitian Vodou is a syncretic mixture of Roman Catholic rituals developed during the French colonial period, based on traditional African beliefs, with roots in Dahomey, Kongo and Yoruba traditions, and folkloric influence from the indigenous Taino peoples of Haiti. The lwa, or spirits with whom Vodou adherents work and practice, are not gods but servants of the Supreme Creator Bondye. A lot of the Iwa identities come from deities formed in the West African traditional regions, especially the Fon and Yoruba. In keeping with the French-Catholic influence of the faith, Vodou practioneers are for the most part monotheists, believing that the lwa are great and powerful forces in the world with whom humans interact and vice versa, resulting in a symbiotic relationship intended to bring both humans and the lwa back to Bondye. "Vodou is a religious practice, a faith that points toward an intimate knowledge of God, and offers its practitioners a means to come into communion with the Divine, through an ever evolving paradigm of dance, song and prayers."
The Comedians (1966) is a novel by Graham Greene. Set in Haiti under the rule of François "Papa Doc" Duvalier and his secret police, the Tontons Macoutes, the novel explores political repression and terrorism through the figure of an English hotel owner, Brown.
Knecht Ruprecht is a companion of Saint Nicholas as described in the folklore of Germany. He is the most popular gift-bringing character in Germany after Saint Nicholas, Christkindl, and Der Weihnachtsmann but is virtually unknown outside the country. He first appears in written sources in the 17th century, as a figure in a Nuremberg Christmas procession.
The Dew Breaker is a collection of linked stories by Edwidge Danticat, published in 2004. The title comes from the Haitian Creole name for a torturer during the regimes of François "Papa Doc" and Jean Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier.
Haiti's Constitution and written laws meet most international human rights standards. In practice, many provisions are not respected. The government's human rights record is poor. Political killings, kidnapping, torture, and unlawful incarceration are common unofficial practices, especially during periods of coups or attempted coups.
Belsnickel is a crotchety, fur-clad Christmas gift-bringer figure in the folklore of the Palatinate region of southwestern Germany along the Rhine, the Saarland, and the Odenwald area of Baden-Württemberg. The figure is also preserved in Pennsylvania Dutch communities and Brazilian-German communities.
Ton-Ton Macoute! is the 1970 debut solo album of American blues musician Johnny Jenkins. Jenkins had previously led The Pinetoppers, a band which at one time featured Otis Redding. Jenkins then appeared on two Redding albums, playing guitar, before releasing his solo debut.
Père Fouettard is a character who accompanies Saint Nicholas on his rounds during Saint Nicholas Day dispensing lumps of coal and/or beatings to naughty children while St. Nicholas gives gifts to the well behaved. He is known mainly in the far north and eastern regions of France, in the south of Belgium, and in French-speaking Switzerland, although similar characters exist all over Europe. This "Happy Father" was said to bring a whip with him to spank all of the naughty children who misbehaved.
Zwarte Piet, also known in English by the translated name Black Pete, is the companion of Saint Nicholas in the folklore of the Low Countries. Traditionally, Zwarte Piet serves as an assistant to the saint and distributes sweets and gifts to well-behaved children.
The Krampus is a horned anthropomorphic figure who, in the Central and Eastern Alpine folkloric tradition, is said to accompany Saint Nicholas on visits to children during the night of 5 December, immediately before the Feast of St. Nicholas on 6 December. In this tradition, Saint Nicholas rewards well-behaved children with small gifts, while Krampus punishes badly behaved ones with birch rods.
Sacamantecas or mantequero is the Spanish name for a kind of bogeyman or criminal characterized by killing for human fat.
The crime of Gádor was the name given to the 1910 kidnapping and subsequent murder of a seven-year-old boy by Francisco Leona in Gádor, Almería, Spain. The purpose of the crime was to use the child's blood and body fat as a folk cure for a wealthy patron's tuberculosis.
The Boogeyman: The Origin of the Myth is a 2023 Spanish-Uruguayan teen fantasy horror film directed by Ángel Gómez Hernández from a screenplay by Juma Fodde which stars Javier Botet as the title character alongside Macarena Gómez and Manolo Solo. It is inspired by the Crime of Gádor.
Saint Nicholas and his servant is a Dutch picture book from 1850, written by Jan Schenkman. The book is about Sinterklaas' stay in the Netherlands, which he makes together with his servant.
