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Were wolf lore can give a whole new meaning to being born to … well, to do whatever

amazing thing you do. Unlike being a blistering guitar player or natural come dian, though,

imagine be ing born to t ransform into a wolf. Not what the typical child would hope for, right?

On the topic of children ’s hopes, werewolves are uncannily associated with the ultimate holiday

for children.

Bein g born on Christma s was considered a bad sign in se emingly isolated parts of

Europe. It ’s not difficu lt to imagine why people from the Middle Ages might have had mixed

feelings about the holida y. Christmas is a few days after the longest night of the y ear, and

obviously a cold ni ght at that. Wolves would have been extra hungry and on the hun t for food

during these cold nights, and remote villa gers would have felt trapped indoors during the

ma jority of this app roximate time of year. Hungr y, howling wolves, combined with bitter winds

outside, would take th eir toll on the sanity of those who had a f air share of superstition to

begin with. A common Scandinavian belief, for instances, was that on this night werewolves

wo uld gather and steal liquor from villagers, and then eng age in drunken revelry … now there ’s

a type of werewolf most people ca n relate to!

The association between lycanthropy (the belief that one has beco me a wolf; the

possibility o f developing wolf -like characteristics by magic or wit chcraft ) and Christmas also

manifested in the idea that any child born on this mysterious holiday was destined to b ecome a

werewo lf. The exact day of the holiday that counts in effecting this curs e, Christmas Eve or

Christmas Da y, varies by culture. Des pite the startling idea that roughly one in 365 people

would have been werewolves if the belief were true, the idea did f louris h. Guy Endore picked

up on t his interesting bit of folklore and used it in his novel The Wer ewolf of Paris . T he most

well -known folktale involving thi s belief, howe ver, comes fro m the village of Sant ’Angelo dei

Lombardi, which is east of Naples i n Italy.

It’s unclear what year this legend w as supposed to have occurred, but it likely began

circulating in the sixteenth or seventeenth century. As Christmas Eve approached (it was the

eve , not the twenty -fifth , that applied in this tale), the village watched with suspicion and fear

as a young couple prepared for the birth of their child . Apparently, every one in Sant ’Angelo

knew what it would mean if the little one arrived on Christmas Eve. He would be doomed to a

life of hideous transformations , and they would be doomed to defending themsel ves against

such a beast.

Sure enou gh, the little boy arrived on the very night everyone fear ed. Despite their

fears, the villagers c ouldn ’t bring themselves to punish the little on e or his parents. In time it

seemed as if their good will toward the family w as rewarded. Th e child was sw eet and pleasant,

and played nicely with the o ther children. Most days and night, that is. For each Christmas Eve,

the lit tle one would turn int a little wolf. An d not a cuddly cub, either. He would snap at anyone who came near, including is parents. While h e was yo ung and relatively weak, the lycanthrope

was easy to co ntain as each Christmas Eve cam e around. Every year found him a little big ger

and stronger in wo lf form, however, and it became increasingly diffi cult to restrain him when

the in evitab le change came. The villagers eventually had to change tactics and began locking

themselves and their animals in each Christmas, allowing the gro wing werewo lf to venture off

into the wilderness. He would return e very Christmas mor nin g in human form , fall asleep , and

basically awaken as if he were any other child.

While growing up, the boy knew he was actually a w erewolf, bu t also saw that the

villagers acce pted him. The acceptance ran deep, too, for whe n he reached his twenties, he was

allow ed to marry a local girl he had grown up with. They were happy together, and of course

had to make special prep arations for their first and every Christmas together. Rather than

worrying about where to hide t he presents, the couple wo rked out a system where she would

locker herself in before hi s change , and wouldn ’t open the do or until he knocked on the door

with three distinc t knocks. This simple code w ould m ean he was hu man again, and ready for

her to let hi m in. After each transformation, she wo uld let him in and wash off the leaves and

probably worse material from his gruesome night adventures.

After a few y ears, the coupl e’s arrangement seemed foolproof, which , of course, meant

the wife was destined to become a little too comfortable with the routine. She eventually made

a mistake that cost her. No wi tnesses were there that night when she either didn ’t lock the

door or opened it at a time when she just assumed hubby must have changed back into human

form . When they found the naked man walking around, still covered in the night ’s gore, the

villagers knew his wife hadn ’t washed a nd cared for him as she had on other Christmas

mornings . Taking h im h ome, the villagers found the horribly mangled remai ns of his wife.

Surprisingly , the folktale doesn ’t end with the villagers punishing the were wolf. Instead

his own gu ilt did him in, and the man soon after commit ted suici de.

Merry Christmas.