Krampus: The
Christmas Demon
In
two days, December 5th, it will be Krampus day!
And what is Krampus Day, you might ask?
Well, in the evening of December 5, the eve of St. Nicholas'
Feast day, young men in Austria, Southern Germany and Northern Italy celebrate
a very old custom. They get dressed up as St. Nicholas' demonic servant, the
Krampus, and then go running about the town (called a Krampus run). They warn the
children to be good because St. Nicholas is on his way.
You can head to You Tube to see a little of a Krampus
Run .
I chose to feature this folkloric creature in my novel, Chasing the Trickster. When anthropology
professor Pascal Guzman puts on a Krampus mask he comes away with a little
surprise. He finds himself host to an ancient entity who has been living in the
mask.
My interest in the Krampus was first tweaked when I saw a
book by Monte Beauchamp, The Devil in
Design and learned about Krampus folklore. In the late nineteenth and early
twentieth centuries, there were many Krampus day postcards sent around Europe.
These postcards were collected in a book by Mr. Beauchamp. Some of the demonic
images are quite humorous as one of Krampus' sidelines was to chase buxom
women. As well as having horns, he's--well--rather horny.
This
and a few other ideas came together to create the plot and characters of my
urban fantasy, Chasing The Trickster.
1. From my college studies in Japanese Noh theatre (I was a
theatre geek long before I thought of being a writer) came the idea that a mask
can have a soul or being living inside it.
2. Then there
is the idea of where do gods go when no one believes in them anymore. It is
thought that Christians took Celtic gods such as Cernunnos, the stag god, and represented
them as devils. Then what if the Krampus was originally a fertility god who then
was represented as a devil? And
what if when he lost his followers he felt he has no choice but to join with
St. Nicholas to have whatever crumbs of worship he could garner?
3. I had seen a Jim Carrey movie many years ago called
"The Mask" wherein a person wearing the mask would develop great
powers but also lose all inhibitions. What if such a spirit could come out and
permanently stay in a host.
Thus we have our hero, Pascal Guzman, possessed and plagued
by an ancient entity, who is constantly nagging him to go out and Par-tee! The
results are tragic, humorous and risqué.
I hope that you will take the time to find out more the
Krampus, and also read my novel, Chasing The Trickster.
Bio: April
Grey's urban fantasy novel, Chasing The Trickster, is published by EternalPress. Her short stories have been published in such print anthologies as
Demonmind's Halloween 2010, The Best of Everyday Fiction 2, Northern Haunts,
Ephemera and Terrible Beauty, Fearful Symmetry. Many of these stories can be
found in her collection, The Fairy Cake Bake Shoppe available through Amazon
and Smashwords.
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