Tuesday, December 8, 2015

gothidays & nights: you better watch out; you better not cry! Krampus is coming to town

I actually learned about Krampus through collecting traditional Christmas ornaments.   

For the second day of The Curious Professor Z's Gothidays event (see the fancy picture to the left!), I'm going to discuss the celebration of Krampus! 

If you’ve followed my blog for at least a year, you know that I have a slight obsession with Old World Christmas ornaments. 

In years past, I’ve had my wrought iron Christmas tree, which I still have but with two households combined into one townhouse we just don’t have the room. Last year was the first time that I put my precious ornaments on a regular (okay, they’re not that regular) artificial tree. I wrote in more detail about this last year in my post, ... oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree... In that post, I included the quote from Old World Christmas, 

"Devils with red faces, horns and tails often played a significant role in early German Christmas celebrations. Paradise plays performed during the holiday season in medieval times depicted life and death, the Garden of Eden, and good and evil."

I learned about the tradition of placing devils and/or Krampus ornaments on my tree from the shopkeeper in my local shop Old World Accents in Carytown. She told me about the German tradition; and, she basically introduced me to Krampus. It was at that point that I started collecting the ornaments and became affectionately known as “Devil Girl” by the shopkeeper.   

Krampus Puppet by Lily Lamberta, All the Saints Theater Company/ picture by my fella
picture by my fella
Krampusnacht or Krampus Night is traditionally celebrated on December 5th, the eve of St. Nicholas Day. Unlike our American Santa who has the naughty or nice list, this traditional St. Nicholas doesn’t trouble himself with the naughty children. He leaves that up to ol’ Krampus who supplies coal and the ruten bundles. 

On Krampusnacht, people dress as Krampus and roam the streets looking for someone to beat with a stick.

Krampus events seem to have caught on in the U.S. This year, Richmond, VA celebrated its third annual Krampusnacht. 
 
Photo: Dave Parrish ~used with permission



Not only that, but again this year RVA Krampus featured Yuletide Monsters 2: A Krampus Art Show the night before at a local gallery. There were Krampus-themed paintings, prints, drawings, sculptures, masks and puppets along with music and a market. Local artist Abigail Larson had a piece in the show as well. 

My fella and I fell in love with two of the pieces so much that he bought them! Yay! 
artist: Nicolas Bryant
artist: Kyle Katherjohn

Participants of RVA Krampus also participated in a toy drive where we collected toys for the Scares that Care organization AND the RVA Horror Book Club read Michael Dougherty’s Krampus: Shadow of Saint Nicholas for our monthly read. On Saturday morning, I even went to see the movie Krampus. Needless to say, it was an extremely full weekend.


I've already received some curious and even some problematic questions from coworkers and Facebook friends. "Isn't Krampus Satanic?"... ummm??? No. For starters, Krampus isn’t “the devil.” He is older than Jesus!

Stick with me a moment because I promise not to get too preachy. In the Bible, Satan as a character doesn’t even appear until the Book of Job where he is portrayed as a servant not a nemesis of God. During the time of Jesus, the devil had become the great scapegoat for all that goes wrong in the world. For many Christians today, Satan aka the Devil still holds that position. When they say, “The devil made me do it,” they mean it. But, that isn’t what I was taught.  

Raised in a Catholic household with a father who is old school Catholic (e.g. Mass in Latin), Dad said that there isn’t any demon that is equal to God. He also said that he loves being Catholic because we believe in miracles. That in itself is pretty darn cool.

Photo: Dave Parrish ~used with permission
Demons are pests; they are nuisances. The Devil may be their leader but we have freewill and we have responsibility. Basically, “the devil made me do it” excuse that some use…well, my dad throws down the bullshit card and I have to agree with him.
My dad is pretty darn religious. He loves Halloween. When I dress up for Krampus activities, my dad is going to shake his head and laugh. There is nothing Satanic about the festivities because well, Krampus pre-dates Satan. It's a wild and raucous night.For me, I'm participating in another culture's traditions hopefully doing so with respect.

While I'm super psyched about Krampus making such an appearance this year, I am nervous about the commercialization that has already begun. Sigh. That completely defeats the purpose. 

Photo: Dave Parrish ~used with permission
Overall, it was an amazing weekend and my fella feels like we even found another holiday to celebrate. Well, you know me, I LOVE holidays! 

12 comments:

  1. I love this post! I was raised Catholic too. I did attend mass with my dad in French regularly but I have been to a few Latin ones with him as well. My dad too was pretty religious and he loved Halloween as much as I do. I think he would have liked Krampus as well.

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    1. Aww, my dad actually went to Polish mass too. I love that :)

      We had so much fun. Are there any Krampus festivities in Quebec?

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  2. Nice decor and the artwork of Kyle Katherjohn is stunning, I can understand that you fell in love! And yes, Krampus is well known in Germany ;)

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    1. There was just something mesmerizing about that art.

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  3. I converted to Catholicism 6 years ago and love learning about traditions like this!!

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    1. Awesome! Oooh, you might not yet know about Candlemas then :D

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  4. What a fun post! But I can't figure out if you believe in God or not..?

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    1. I'm a HUGE Pope John Paul II fan and my house is filled with Catholic relics. I am fascinated by religion and even double-majored in World Religious Studies in undergrad along with English Literature. But, that still is a fair question to ask.

      God, YES! A big old white man sitting on the clouds, no!

      Pope JP2 said that if you can't find God in the mountains you can't find him anywhere. He was Polish. He loved nature. I find God in nature quite often. I think Jewish philosopher Martin Buber's I-Thou explanation works for me a great deal. God is the in-between. God is the hyphen in I-Thou, the connection between you and nature, the connection in relationships. I am Catholic but all religion can be problematic and the Church has its flaws. I'm probably much more comfortable with a father-figure god than a maternal God figure because it's what I grew up with and because I may have some mother issues.

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    2. I don't know Buber, but I like the connection to nature :)

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  5. Don`t worry about Krampus beeing commercialiced. We have him in Austria since ages and he makes appereances as chocolate figure etc in every childs Nikolaus bag.
    Also there are Krampus cards that you can send to your loved one as some naughty reminder.

    YOu should also look up Perchten they are even more gruesome than the Krampus :D

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  6. I feel he didn't do his job properly around here! I can hear kids squealing right now!

    I love the Krampus tradition!

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  7. The art piece on the left, the one by Byant, is that on wood? It looks carved or burnt? When you were growing up, did the old Polish folks in your family talk about Black Peter? Apparently, he has the same job as the Krampus and also comes from the area between Germany and Poland. I was scared to death of Black Peter ... and the Baba Yaga! Good grief! I heard all about her growing up. She became one of the Goddesses in my Pantheon, believe it or not. :)

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