Gawgaw

In Maltese folklore,  the Gawgaw is a cursed human who is forced to transform into a horrendous being during Christmas night should they go to sleep on Christmas eve.

Myths & Legends
In Maltese culture, it is said that anyone born on the 24th of December is cursed to become a Gawgaw. The reason for this is that the Maltese ancestors believed that it wasn’t right for anyone to take precedence on the night when the only individual and event that matters is the birth of Jesus Christ. As punishment for this, they believed that the afflicted who go to sleep on Christmas eve will always have a nightmare at midnight. While still asleep, the person turns into the Gawgaw and spends the night running around the streets looking for naughty children.

The Gawgaw has the ability to smell misbehaving children and after capturing them, he takes them to a land of hunger and suffering.

Characteristics
No one has seen him, no one knows its shape or knows what the Gawgaw looks like, but it is said to be an ugly monster or spirit tied to Christmas. Although never officially seen, the locals would constantly exaggerate and increase the infamy of the monster.

Appearance & Identification
The only thing that is certain is that the afflicted turn back into their human form at sunrise with only bruises and covered in feathers without any knowledge of how they got to their location.

Prevention
The best way to prevent a transformation is to not sleep until midnight.

Parents who have been cursed with such a child do everything in their abilities to keep the child from sleeping until midnight on Christmas eve to avoid them turning into a Gawgaw. A way they did this was asking their child to count the holes of either a sieve or a strainer between eleven and midnight.