Krampus and Nikolaus

Tuesday morning (Dec. 6) 6-year old Henry asked, "Is it Nikolaus day?"  "Yes," I answered.  Then Henry replied with glee, "Yay! I didn't get taken away by Krampus!" He then started rooting thru his shoes, only to discover a rock. He wasn't sure what a rock meant.  "Oh, Henry, I thought we were supposed to put our shoes out tonight. But Nikolaus is in town today. I'm sure he'll stop by tonight." Henry is learning all these traditions in kindergarten but communicating details is not one of Henry's strong suits, so we are behind the curve as parents.

In case you aren't familiar with Krampus and Nikolaus, it goes something like this.  Nikolaus, who is a bishop, visits children on Dec. 6 to give them sweets and nuts. If children put their shoes out (either outside or between the double windows), Nikolaus will leave them some treats. However, Nikolaus travels with a devil-like character called Krampus, who takes naughty children away from their parents and beats them with a switch.

Krampus day is Dec 5, and it is not uncommon to see them out and about that evening. A friend was telling me that some families have Krampus parties on the 5th.  If you go to one of these parties you are to bring a poem about each of your children, identifying how naughty they are. Some children cry when their poems are read!  Are you getting an idea about Krampus?

Graz had their Krampus parade several weeks ago. We went to see what it was all about.  I can quite honestly say that this parade is the most culturally different event that I have experienced here.  Many civic groups or other organizations have their own costumes, and they each are given a slot in the parade. There are lots of groups with 8-12 Krampuses each. These guys are frightening!  They stomp down the road and run at the crowds and get in your face. Some beat their drums as though they are on the warpath.  Some of them drag smoking cauldrons behind them. Some carry flaming torches. Some have chains that they drag on the ground. The sounds and smells are very real and close and ominous.  They look for children and hold out their hands to them as if they are going to grab them and take them away.  If a child is brave enough to take their hand, most Krampuses will just quickly shake it and then let go, but I saw one guy pull a child toward him and that seriously freaked out the kid.  Our kids hid the entire time and we ended up leaving before the end (after seeing perhaps 100 Krampuses and 3 Nikolauses - and, yes, Nikolaus walks along with them.)

Nikolaus day is Dec. 6, and as you can imagine, quite different.  Nikolaus visited both of the kids' schools, spoke to the kids and handed out goodie bags. And the kids made Nikolauses at school.  Nikolaus was scheduled to be at various advent markets around Graz's city center in the late afternoon so we went to find him. Along the way, we met several Nikolauses and they came up to the kids to talk to them and give them treats.  In front of the Catholic church on the main street they had tables out where you could make your own bishop hat (sorry, I don't know the name of this) and several women were singing Christmas carols (some of the Nikolauses were women).  It was a very pleasant stroll down Herrangasse (the street), very different from the Krampus parade! Eventually we met up with Russ and realized we missed Nikolaus while buying trinkets at the advent markets! We walked over to another market (at Glockenspielplatz, Liz and Jerry). And knew we'd found him when we heard the clip clop of the house drawn carriage.  He got out for pictures and the kids each got a chocolate Nikolaus.

This was NOT like waiting in line for Santa Claus.  In fact there were very few people even approaching him -- and nothing compared to the crowds who turned out for the Krampus parade.  I should add, that Nikolaus is not Santa Claus.  Neither Nikolaus nor Santa Claus delivers Christmas gifts here - Christkind does - so to compare to Santa is not really a fair comparison.

As we came home that the evening, Henry said, "No one from my class was taken by Krampus.  No one from my whole school!"

Sue

From Russ:  Even though Sue did a *great* job with this post, and I was scared just thinking about that parade again, you really need to see a video of the Krampus Parade.  We couldn't find one from Graz this year (they added barricades and that made them even wilder, I think), but you'll maybe get the idea by watching this from a few years ago:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkVnS6uwV8E.