Merry Christmas from Krampus and Morbid Anatomy

Merry Christmas from Krampus--St Nicolas' Eastern European, cloven hooved, birch-switch bearing sidekick--and all of us at Morbid Anatomy. The Museum is closed today, but will be open regular hours tomorrow, December 26.

Nothing Says "Merry Christmas" Like Krampus on the BBC!

A very happy Christmas Eve to you! And what better way to celebrate than with Krampus?

Just in time for the holiday, journalist Alina Simone has done a wonderful piece of radio reportage for the BBC's "The World" about the phenomenon of Krampus and the lack of darkness in American culture more generally, focusing on last weekend's Morbid Anatomy and Ghoul a Go Go Krampus party!

Click here to listen; You will find the piece at 18:20 in.

Merry Christmas Eve!

"Krampusfest": Guest Post for Morbid Anatomy by Al Ridenour of Art of Bleeding

Krampus Group in Munich. Photo: Al Ridenour.

Krampus Los Angeles Troupe. Photo: Phil Glau.

Postcard from Monte Beauchamp’s collection.

Following is a guest post about about friend of Morbid Anatomy Al Ridenour's attempts to revive the art of "Krampusfest" in his hometown of Sunny Los Angeles. Al is part of a group of medical art-themed provocateurs called Art of Bleeding; more on them here. Maybe we can persuade Al to stage Krampus fest here in NYC next year?

For more on Krampus and his history, click here; to find out about the Morbid Anatomy Krampus costume party (!) on December 14th, click here. To order Krampus holiday cards of your very own, click here.

As the Morbid Anatomy’s annual Krampus celebration approaches, I’ve been invited to share a bit about how we here in the relentlessly sunny city of Los Angeles are now also falling under the shadow of an ancient Alpine devil.

About a year ago, several friends and I resolved to create Krampus suits and stage California’s first Krampuslauf, (“Krampus run” though “shamble” might be more accurate). This  plan expanded into a frighteningly ambitious series of activities dubbed “Krampusfest.”

While perhaps the most overweening, we are not the first American Krampus troupe.  That credit goes to Philadelphia Krampuslauf, now in its third year. Groups in Portland, OR, Detroit, Athens, GA, Bloomington, IN, and New Orleans are also now part of this burgeoning movement.

Much of this began in 2004 when collector Monte Beauchamp began baiting us with his lovely series of books documenting the popular Krampus cards that circulated in earlier centuries. What pushed me over the edge, however, was the discovery of European videos that presented the Krampus not as a antiquated ephemera, but a tradition still very much alive and ready to chase you down the street. Pouring over online footage, I concluded that the scenes shot in the Gasteiner Valley near Salzburg seemed the most unrestrained and boisterous, so that is where I convinced my wife we needed to go.

Returning to my hotel giddy from my first night of live Krampus tussling, and with snow still wet in my hair, I opened the fateful email message announcing the creation of an LA Krampuslauf.  It came from Al Guerrero, a fellow organizer and co-conspirator of the Los Angeles lodge of The Cacophony Society, a national group dedicated to eccentric mischief which flustered journalists of the 1990s came to define as “culture jamming” and “flash mobs.”  We’d never sported horns or wielded switches, but had honed some guerilla theater fly-by-the-seat-of your pants spectacle-making skills.  Krampus didn’t seem like a big jump.

Each of our suits did end up consuming sizable investments of time and money.  Many of the costumes were sewn weft-by-weft, and the masks sculpted from scratch and topped by real animal horns. Right now there are about 15 of us, and we’re looking forward to meeting more recruits at our public Krampus run.

The troupe will also storm in on some less traditional indoor events, including our Krampus Ball and Krampus Rumpus, themed shows juxtaposing performances of traditional Schuhplattler dances and alpenhorn solos by a local Bavarian cultural group with acts like Santa Claus Nomi (the band Timur and The Dime Museum working with former Nomi composer Kristian Hoffman) as well as horned and pelt-wearing parody bands including The Kramps, Krampwerk, and Krammpstein.

And there is a group exhibition at Santa Monica’s Copro Gallery displaying Krampus-inspired artwork by a horde of artists including Chet Zar, Bob Dob, Luke Cheu, Travis Louie, and even Tim Burton. For this event, Krampus LA will contribute a performance and outdoor “Krampus Habitat” installation omplete with cages, screaming children and hellish photo-ops a-plenty.

One of our purposes in creating this crazy patchwork of events was to offer an unfamiliar public different ways to dip their toes into a new tradition. Not everyone can dedicate the resources to creating traditional costumes, but we’re hoping that some uncostumed attendees at this year’s events will be inspired to return to us next fall for workshops geared toward making traditional costumes.

Maintaining the core traditions under the camouflage of Californian kookery is important to us. Toward that end, we’re also reaching out to European groups, and have befriended a couple participants from different communities around Salzburg. Having previously planned trips to California, we met with each of them for informal Q and As. They were both surprised and initially perhaps a bit baffled at our enthusiasm and efforts toward creating costumes imitating their homegrown traditions. Usually things run differently.  For many Europeans the obliteration of local holiday customs by the ever-expanding presences of the American Santa Claus, (“Weihnachtsmann,” i.e., “Christmas Man” in German) is a hot-button issue, so amid all our chaotic street devilry, we hope our group and other American Krampus enthusiasts might be tipping the scales a bit toward a happier equilibrium.

A True Tale of Krampus Youth from Bad Goisern, Austria

To extend the holiday cheer, I am very excited to share with you this tale of growing up with the Krampus tradition, just in from Austrian Morbid Anatomy reader Julia Atzmanstorfer:

Hello from Austria, 

I recently noted that you post much about Krampus - which is a very vivid tradition in the region where I live. Here in Bad Goisern/Upper Austria we have one of the biggest Krampus events in the country; hundreds of Krampusses come there to meet and run every December.

I just asked myself if you know that this old tradition has nothing to do with Christmas itself - as a important part of Advent and takes place on the 5th of December, the evening of St. Nikolaus. Krampus is the companion of St. Nikolaus (an old, rather kindhearted, but also rigorous man who visits the children), and he has the role of punishing those, who have been bad through the year, by hitting them with his birch (in former times children were also told that the Krampus would take them with him). 

These guys are really, really scary when you are a child... Their shaggy skins, their wooden masks (which are often handed down from generation to generation and nowadays also more and more orientated in modern splatter movies) and their cow bells around the ankles... the very sound of them is really threatening when they are coming nearer! 

Behind the Krampus mask there is always a young man, never a girl or a woman - and the whole custom of course also has a certain archaic sexual connotation, because the Krampusses hidden behind their masks also catch girls to hit them. When I was around 16, 17, it was always very exciting to participate in the Krampuslauf as a spectator - when you are a teenager, you hope that one of them gets you... 

Anyway. Perhaps you know all this. Just in case you did not yet, I thought you might find it interesting. 

Merry Christmas!
Julia

Thanks so much, Julia, for sending this along!

Gruß vom Krampus and Happy Holidays Everyone!

Gruß vom Krampus and Happy Holidays, everyone!

The images you see above are all vintage Krampus postcards except for the bottom image, a photo of the special (and delicious!) Krampus cake provided by the fellas of Ghoul a Go Go for Saturday night's Morbid Anatomy and Ghoul a Go Go Krampus Party; You can see a full selection of photos from this epic evening by clicking here.

Postcards pictured above found here, here, here, here, here and here.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Decade From Morbid Anatomy and Krampus!

Hi All. I will be essentially off-the-internet for much the holidays, and wanted to take this opportunity--before leaving behind my office and wi-fi for the wilds of Scranton, PA--to wish all of you all Happy Holidays and best wishes for the new decade, compliments of myself and Krampus, St. Nicholas' cloven-hooved, chain-swinging, lolling-toungued, child-punishing Eastern-European sidekick.

For more on Krampus, see these recent posts (1, 2, 3). If what you see interests you, then you might want to check out The Devil in Design: The Krampus Postcards, which you can purchase from The Morbid Anatomy Bookstore by clicking here. If anyone has any tips on things not-to-be-missed in the Scranton, PA area, please (!!!) let me know by clicking here.

Happy Holidays, and more to come in 2010!
--Morbid Anatomy and Krampus

Our Beloved Krampus Makes the Colbert Report!

Ok. As many of you know, I have long been a fan of Krampus, St. Nicholas' Eastern European, birch-switch-beating, lolling tongued, cloven-hooved, child-punishing side kick (more about him here). I learned of him and his mischevious, intriguing ways while living in Budapest, where Krampus continues to be a beloved part--and to my mind, the highlight of!--the Christmas season, joining St. Nicholas for all his public appearances, even at the local Burger King!

The saddest part about loving Krampus is the lack of any real recognition he earns this side of the Balkans. Well, this cultural injustice just been righted by, of all things, the Colbert Report! I kid you not. Its about time America caught up on what they're missing!

Check out Krampus on the Colbert Report by clicking here.

If this piques your interest, stay tuned for an upcoming announcement about the Observatory Krampus-themed Holiday party that will take place following Mark Dery's lecture on December 19th! If you'd like to learn more about the illustrious and mighty Krampus, a great source is the wonderful book The Devil in Design: The Krampus Postcards.

Click on image to see much larger version; image found here.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Morbid Anatomy and Our Mischievous Side Kick, Krampus

Morbid Anatomy (and our mischievous side kick, Krampus) would like to wish you all happy holidays and a fabulous new year.

To see many, many more images of Krampus, click here to visit the extensive collection (from which the above images were drawn) housed on the Monster Brains blog. Learn more about Krampus and his evil ways here.

Merry Christmas From Krampus and Morbid Anatomy!

When I lived in Budapest, I learned of the Eastern European tradition of Saint Nikolas' evil sidekick, Krampus. This is by far my favorite of Christmas traditions. So, from Morbid Anatomy and our evil sidekick Krampus, a non-denominational Merry Christmas!