Grittibänz (December)

Grittibänz, sweet doughy bread boys, are the featured baked good to go along with Samichlaus Day.

According to the Schweizer Idiotikon, the seminal resource on the Swiss-German language, Grittibänz (or Grättimaa in Basler dialect) traces back to the 1800s and is a mix of two distinct words.

"Gritti", comes from the high German "grätschen" which translates as "splayed" or "straddled", describing the form of the legs. "Bänz" was a short form of the common 1800s name Benedict and was used as a stand-in name to describe any man, like the name Jack in English.