As much of the world celebrates Christmas, certain Hasidic communities will mark “Nittel Nacht.” The term “Nittel” derives from the Latin natalis for “Christmas.” These Nittel customs were once widespread among Ashkenazi Jews and have been documented for at least 500 years. However, following immigration to Israel, these traditions have mostly been preserved by only a handful of Hasidic groups.
Centuries ago, on Christmas Eve, Ashkenazi Jews would typically gather in brightly lit communal spaces, play cards until sunrise, eat garlic, and avoid studying Torah. Even those who didn’t make it to the communal events and stayed home refrained from engaging in marital relations, and in some places, ritual baths (mikvehs) were locked beforehand. Another custom involved avoiding going to the outhouse, which was a separate and distant structure from one’s home back then.
Playing Cards Until Dawn
If you’re wondering where these customs originated, you’re not alone. For centuries, rabbis, scholars, and even anonymous antisemites on the internet have tried to understand them. The most common explanation is that they were intended as a display of contempt for the Christian holiday and the birth of Jesus, though he was generally not mentioned by name. However, upon deeper reflection, there are probably many more effective ways to show contempt for Christmas, even more effective than playing poker all night.
Interestingly, some of those who actually practiced “Nittel” traditions often cited a different reason: Kabbalistic teachings suggested that on that night, unholy spiritual forces were at the height of their powers, making it a very dangerous night indeed. The gatherings, light, games, and garlic were meant to repel these dark forces. It was also important to avoid engaging in Torah study during such times, because doing so when these impure forces were in the ascendance could inadvertently empower them even more.
Over the centuries, various Christian authorities often censored and erased unflattering or disrespectful references to Christian doctrine within Jewish texts, such as the Talmud. But some of these sources which remained untouched by Christian censorship explicitly stated that these forces of darkness included none other than Jesus himself. According to these traditions, on that night, Jesus would rise from the dead to roam the world and try to harm Jews who weren’t cautious. He could hurt anyone wandering alone or heading to the outhouse. They warned that a child conceived on that night would be under Jesus’ influence for life. Jesus was particularly drawn to Torah study, having been a Torah student himself during his lifetime. Therefore, since learning Torah could attract him, it was avoided on Nittel Nacht. He was said to lurk in darkness and recoil from light, laughter, and the smell of garlic. Anyone particularly observant will identify the link between classic vampire traits to the image of Jesus, as one rising from the dead.
And yet, there is something a bit strange about the description of Jesus as a vampire.
The Ghost of Christmas Past?
According to scholar Rebecca Scharbach, the solution to these mysteries lies in medieval and early modern Christian Christmas customs. The cheerful, family-oriented Christmas we know today is a 19th-century British invention. Until then, Christmas Eve was considered a time when the spirits of dead sinners returned to the earth, a night when witches and demons haunted the streets trying to harm people.
On that night, Christians avoided churches and holy sites, believing these spaces were where the spirits held their own holiday services. Prayer, in general, was deemed ineffective and even dangerous. Instead, Christian believers gathered in well-lit public spaces, eating garlic and playing card games until the morning light to ward off spirits. They avoided intimacy, but a popular belief also spread that children conceived on Christmas Eve would belong to the forces of darkness or possess supernatural powers, like the ability to see ghosts.
In many places, these beliefs gave rise to some odd customs, with selected townsfolk dressing up as ghosts, witches, and various “resurrected” sinners. They would go house to house ringing bells, testing children’s knowledge of religious texts. Good children received sweets, while rumor had it that bad children were dismembered and cooked in boiling water. If this reminds you of Halloween, that’s no coincidence – the customs are indeed related. And if this brings to mind an early version of Santa Claus, that’s because it likely is.
It might seem that the unique Jewish element in these customs was the linkage of Jesus with demonic, impure forces. But surprisingly, even this was not a Jewish invention.
In many countries, a custom was practiced according to which one person would dress up as the Christkind (the Christ-Child or Baby Jesus) and roam about on Christmas Eve. In certain villages, these customs blended with local traditions, and the figure dressed as Jesus would join the demons and spirits in the streets. While Jesus would often be dressed in white, this was not always the case, as described below by Max Toeppen and cited by Scharbach in her article:
On Christmas Eve, the so-called ‘Holy Christ’ goes around – that is, a fellow dressed in a fur pelt turned inside out and armed with a club …[or] very often he appears as a Bear, likewise wearing an inside-out fur with a sleeve left dragging as a tail. […] [He] examines the trembling children [ as to whether they know their prayers]. Those who are studious […] and can answer him well receive gifts upon his departure.
Baby Jesus Will Catch Your Big Toe
It appears that Jewish folklore recognized, adopted, and even preserved the older Christmas traditions long after they had faded from most of the world.
The German Reformation, the English Industrial Revolution, and American capitalism transformed Christmas into the holiday we know today, almost unrecognizable from what it once was, and almost all of the customs known today only go back to the last 200 years or so. Ironically, some of the only people who still observe these ancient holiday traditions belong to certain Ashkenazi Jewish communities, for whom the practices of their ancestors remain sacred. After all, as the old Jewish joke goes – what do Christians know about Christmas?
