Narrative
The Perchten and the Krampus
Perchten und Krampus
Anonymous · 1600
Synopsis
In the Alpine valleys, during the nights that run from Christmas to Epiphany, Lady Perchta passes by: she punishes idleness and anyone who breaks the rules of feast days, from nightmare to a belly cut open and filled with stones, and rewards diligent spinners with full spindles and golden threads. On 5 December, the Krampus, horned, covered in fur and ringing his bells, accompanies Saint Nicholas and frightens disobedient children.
Context
The Perchten, masked figures of the Alpine valleys, divide into beautiful and ugly ones, who drive out winter to the sound of bells between Christmas and Epiphany; the Krampus, who accompanies Saint Nicholas on 5 December, is a distinct figure, whom parades have mixed with the Perchten since the nineties. Descriptions of these masks exist from the sixteenth century; the archbishops of Salzburg saw in them, from 1664 to 1792, an occasion for disorder. Around 1900, they were interpreted as a very ancient Germanic cult, a reading that Nazism popularised. The name of the Krampus is said to come from an old word for the claw.
Who it is for
A body of customs rather than of texts, best approached through ethnographic studies or through the festivals themselves.
Prizes and reception
The Perchten parade of Gastein has been on the Austrian list of intangible cultural heritage drawn up by UNESCO since 2011.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.