Saturday, December 5, 2015

Beware of devilish Krampus tonight!

.

You surely recognize good St. Nicholas.
But do you recognize his opposite, the evil devil Krampus?
Every child in Austria knows about this demon, but I first learned of him only a few weeks ago when my hosts in Vienna gave me these chocolate figures and told me to eat Krampus -- the one with horns, chains, and claws -- only on December 6.
Dec. 6 is St. Nicholas Day but the night before is Krampusnacht, which looks to me to be a scary night to be out on the streets of Austria and some of the surrounding countries.
.
I can't begin to explain it well, having never experienced it, so I ask you to read some of these really interesting articles (with great photos!).
BTW, apparently this year there is a spurt of interest in all this in America too!

An explanation from the Archdiocese of Vienna, in German:  Der Krampus hat mit dem Hl. Nikolaus eigentlich nichts zu tun

In German:   Von altem Brauchtum bis Alpenerotik


From National Geographic:
 Krampus the Christmas Devil Is Coming to More Towns. So Where's He From?

Another from National Geographic:   How Krampus, the Christmas ‘Devil,’ Became Cool

Official trailer for the new American horror-comedy movie "Krampus"
("Legendary Pictures’ Krampus, a darkly festive tale of a yuletide ghoul, reveals an irreverently twisted side to the holiday.
When his dysfunctional family clashes over the holidays, young Max (Emjay Anthony) is disillusioned and turns his back on Christmas. Little does he know, this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers.
All hell breaks loose as beloved holiday icons take on a monstrous life of their own, laying siege to the fractured family’s home and forcing them to fight for each other if they hope to survive")

Merisi Vienna's blog post: Saint Nicholas and Krampus: Were you naughty or nice?

Bolzano Daily Photo, South Tyrol / Italy offers a short video (narrated in Ladin language!) of the actual festivities on Krampusnacht in the village of Urtijëi / St. Ulrich / Ortise.
.
Good luck. Be good.  Watch out tonight!
And tomorrow, a happy St. Nicholas Day! 
.

9 comments:

  1. Thank you, Dina, for the link to my blog, very sweet of you! xox
    I have read that the new movie about Krampus is very much a Hollywood-version, little to do with the original.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great chocolates :)

    "...this lack of festive spirit has unleashed the wrath of Krampus: a demonic force of ancient evil intent on punishing non-believers". That is strange. Why would a force of evil punish _non-believers_? If it was a force of evil, it would punish _believers_!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow. I've never seen a devilish chocolate treat.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dina in Poland we caelebrate St. Nicholaus day ans we give mainly children small gifts but we don't have a scary devil

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've only known about him through photoblogs from Europe. How could one resist eating the chocolate until the 6th of December?

    ReplyDelete
  6. There is much worse than Krampus out there... They are quite nice, after all!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I only first heard of him too when I saw the movie trailer a while ago. Scary :)

    ReplyDelete


Thanks for your comment!
Comment moderation is on so I will see any new comments even on older posts!