Krampus Greeting Cards

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St. Nicholas Day in Switzerland & Central Europe". iFolor. 6 October 2018 . Retrieved 28 November 2023. May yours be a joyful Christmas,” reads one card from the late 1800s, along with an illustration of a dead robin. Another card shows an elderly couple laughing maniacally as they lean out a second-story window and dump water onto a group of carolers below. “Wishing you a jolly Christmas,” it says beneath the image.

Mittermayr, Helmut (8 December 2013). "70 Verletzte bei Krampuslauf"[70 injured in Krampus run]. Tiroler Tageszeitung (in German). a b c d e f g h Bruce, Maurice (March 1958). "The Krampus in Styria". Folklore. 69 (1): 44–47. doi: 10.1080/0015587X.1958.9717121.Krampus nije baš tako loš kao što se čini, on samo opominje"[Krampus isn't as bad as he seems, he just warns]. www.24sata.hr (in Croatian). 6 December 2014. Why all the sudden attention in a country where he’s never been widely recognized? Art director, graphic designer, and big man on Krampus Monte Beauchamp thinks that he deserves a lot of the credit. After a collector introduced him to Krampus postcards from the 19th and 20th centuries, Beauchamp published some in two issues of his magazine Blab!, and followed that with two books of Krampus cards in 2004 and 2010. Krampusnacht is celebrated every year on December 5, the night before the celebration of the Feast of St. Nicholas. This holiday is mostly celebrated in Germany, Austria, Croatia, and some other European countries. It is also popular in Australia, and over the years, Krampusnacht’s popularity has grown in North America as well. Silvesterklaus, a Swiss New Year's Eve celebration featuring a musical procession of performers in grotesque costumes. Davis, Robert (2004). Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500–1800. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1403945518.

The Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure in the Central and Eastern Alpine folklore of Europe who, during the Advent season, scares children who have misbehaved. Assisting Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus, the pair visit children on the night of 6 December, with Saint Nicholas rewarding the well-behaved children with gifts such as oranges, dried fruit, walnuts and chocolate, while the badly behaved ones only receive punishment from Krampus with birch rods. Krampus day itself, on the other hand, is on 5 December. [1] Folk customs influenced the design of many Victorian Christmas cards. In British folklore, for example, robins and wrens are considered sacred species. John Grossman, author of Christmas Curiosities: Old, Dark and Forgotten Christmas, writes that images of these dead birds on Christmas cards may have been “bound to elicit Victorian sympathy and may reference common stories of poor children freezing to death at Christmas.”Europeans have been exchanging greeting cards featuring Krampus since the 19th century. [29] Sometimes introduced with Gruß vom Krampus (Greetings from Krampus), the cards usually have humorous rhymes and poems. Krampus is often featured looming menacingly over children. He is also shown as having one human foot and one cloven hoof. In some, Krampus has sexual overtones; he is pictured pursuing buxom women. [30] Over time, the representation of Krampus in the cards has changed; older versions have a more frightening Krampus, while modern versions have a cuter, more Cupid-like creature. [ citation needed] Krampus has also adorned postcards and candy containers. [31] Regional variation [ edit ]

The show was such a great success that he invited me to start curating the Krampus shows,” he says. The introduction of mass visual media couldn’t help but sweep the charismatic Krampus up in its wave. When the postcard industry experienced a boom in Germany and Austria in the 1890s, it opened the way for Krampuskarten.

Greetings from Krampus

FOTO: Sveti Nikola i Krampus stigli su morem i nagradili dobru djecu"[PHOTO: Saint Nicholas and Krampus arrived by sea and rewarded good children]. Liburnija.net (in Croatian). 26 November 2016 . Retrieved 5 December 2016. In the aftermath of the 1932 election in Austria, the Krampus tradition was prohibited by the Dollfuss regime [14] under the clerical fascist Fatherland Front ( Vaterländische Front) and the Christian Social Party. Greeting cards, in general, are linked socially, economically and politically to the culture, period and place of their origin and use. “Sentiments and designs that may seem unusual today were often considered signs of good fortune, while others poked fun at superstitions,” says Bradbeer. Whether or not Beauchamp is primarily responsible for introducing Krampus cards to the U.S., Krampus has since become a sort of ironic icon in America. Etsy has a whole section of items inspired by classic Krampus cards. And if you don’t have time to send cards, you can buy an ugly Krampus sweater to wear to your local Krampus party or Krampuslauf. Krampus’ popularity in the U.S. arguably peaked with the 2015 feature film Krampus, which shouldn’t be confused with the many other low-budget Krampus movies.

Crimmins, Peter (15 December 2011). "Horror For The Holidays: Meet The Anti-Santa". NPR . Retrieved 25 November 2015. Similar figures are recorded in neighboring areas. Strohbart in Bavaria, Klaubauf(mann) in Austria and Bavaria, while Bartl or Bartel, Niglobartl, and Wubartl are used in the southern part of the country. Other names include Barrel or Bartholomeus ( Styria), Schmutzli ( German-speaking Switzerland), Pöpel or Hüllepöpel ( Würzburg), Zember ( Cheb), Belzmärte and Pelzmärtel ( Swabia and Franconia). In most parts of Slovenia, whose culture was greatly affected by Austrian culture, Krampus is called parkelj and is one of the companions of Miklavž, the Slovenian form of St. Nicholas. [20] [35] Siefker, Phyllis (1997). Santa Claus, last of the Wild Men: the origins and evolution of Saint Nicholas. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Co. pp.155–159. ISBN 978-0-7864-0246-5. McFarland, Kevin (16 December 2013). "American Dad: "Minstrel Krampus" ". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 5 September 2020. Throw Out Krampus". Time. 7 December 1953. p.41. Archived from the original on 22 December 2008 . Retrieved 18 December 2011.Horror for the Holidays: Meet the Anti Santa". NPR. National Public Radio . Retrieved 22 December 2011. I think it’s important to understand that ‘festive’ cards as we know them now are very much a 20th-century phenomena,” says Katie Brown, assistant curator of social history at York Castle Museum. According to Brown, although some of the history is lost, designs were made to serve as conversation pieces as much as they were made to celebrate the season. Many Victorian Christmas cards became parlor art or people added them to their scrapbook collections. The Krampus of legend whips people with his birch bundle, but he’s a literal demon. Surely the costumed human Krampus partiers wouldn’t engage in such violence, right? Wrong. Here’s a description of the Salzburg Krampuslauf from a tourist who expected mere costumed buffoonery and came home with welts: If you haven’t heard of Krampus, the demon-like half-goat of Austrian folklore, then you haven’t been paying attention. The scary counterpart to St. Nicholas—Krampus punishes naughty children by beating them or dragging them to his lair, or even to hell—has already appeared on the Colbert Report, starred in a comic book, and inspired parties and parades across the U.S. He’s even the subject of a feature film (though he’s also appeared in multiple low-budget movies).