Krampus and Perchta: Tyrolean Pagan Traditions.

Süd Tirol is a land that, for geographical reasons, has always been a bit isolated from the rest of Europe. In this area there are many small villages, perched on the mountains or lying in secondary valleys, which, since they are not very accessible, have never been affected by mass tourism; as a consequence, their traditions and their folklore have remained intact for centuries, handed down from generation to generation.
Some of these traditions have been supplanted or modified so that they could turn out to be "more Christian", but their recall to the ancient cults is largely evident.
One of these, the most famous actually, is the parade of the Krampus, during the feast of St. Nicholas.

The Krampus are disguised as anthropomorphic figures with goat-like features. They go around in the village unleashed, shouting and making a lot of noise with bells and chains. Their faces are covered with handmade masks with diabolical and disquieting features, their clothes are ragged and worn and they often wear sheepskin cloaks. They walk together with St. Nicholas (the Tyrolean version of Santa Claus) who donates sweets and candies to the good children in the squares and streets of the town, while holding whips in their hand made with local materials, and they do not hesitate to lash the legs of the unfortunates that are near them (the bad kids!). The mask worn by them must never be taken away in public and the spectators must never try to take it off, otherwise the masked person will be dishonoured.

According to the Christian legend, it is said that in ancient times, during periods of famine, some young people from small mountain villages disguised themselves using furs and feathers, skins and animal horns. Being in this way unrecognizable, they went around terrorizing the inhabitants of the nearby villages, robbing them of the necessary provisions for the winter season which were coming. After some time, the young people realized, however, that among them there was an impostor: it was the devil himself, who taking advantage of his real diabolical face had entered the group remaining recognizable only thanks to the legs in the form of goat hoof.

The bishop Nicholas was then called to exorcise the disturbing presence and to defeat the devil.
According to tradition, in fact, St. Nicholas puts cakes in the shoes of children who have behaved well during the year, children who have behaved badly instead, are likely to be beaten, kidnapped and eaten by Krampus, or in the best case, to receive only twigs of birch as a gift.

Wildermann.

Actually, Christians themselves have tried in every way to "suppress" this popular feast (in the 12th century it was even forbidden and again in 1934 by the Austrian Conservative Party), as evidently linked to paganism and because of the demonic features of Krampus.
In the countryside of Süd Tirol, the worship of the Horned God, the so-called Wilder Mann (the Wild Man), an archetype of a male deity, linked to the forest, often represented as covered by a thick hair or vegetation and horns on his head (an archetype comparable to Celtic Cernunnos), was very much alive.  Christians, according to the fact that it was impossible to erase this deity from the peasant traditions, replaced it with Saint Nicholas (which in some representations is depicted with horns). Nowadays, the figure of Krampus tends to emerge more and more in the alpine festivals, more and more famous and very celebrated by the locals.

The Wild Hunt.

In fact, the Krampuslauf is nothing more than the concept of Wild Hunt (a concept present in all the pagan traditions of Northern Europe).
The origin of the Wild Hunt, comes from the Nordic mythology: In the nights of the "Sacred Period" (the twelve days following the winter solstice) the God Wotan (Odin) a psychopomp deity, riding Sleipnir, leads the procession of the souls of the warrioris who died in battle in a wild race around the Earth.
In all the different versions of the myth, the Wild Hunt is structured precisely, like a nocturnal procession of supernatural beings, that cross the sky or the earth, intent on a feral hunting trip. Generally, the procession is led by a chthonic deity, and the mortals who run into the parade are kidnapped or killed.
We can say that, even if in a sugar-coated version, even Santa Claus, who with a sled pulled by cervids (*here returns the symbolism of the horns) crosses the sky, can represent in his own way a Wild Hunt.

According to the pagan tradition, the youth of the village disguised themselves as monsters and demons to scare, with bells and screams, the evil spirits of winter, which otherwise would have settled in the village and would have ruined the provisions and brought the population to starvation ( which reminds a little of Samhain). After  time, this tradition merged with the Christian concept, thus giving rise to the Krampus festival as we know it today.

Another divinity, a female one, that was celebrated in this period of the year in the pre-Christian alpine traditions is Perchta. Its name means "The Bright One - White" because, according to the descriptions, it can appear beautiful and white like snow or as an old woman (from its name derives also the etymology of the word Birch, from the color of its bark , which is in fact white). The Goddess Perchta is also called "Lady of the Beasts", because she is the guardian and protectress of the animal world, the earth and wild nature, probably a deity similar to Holda (commonly called Frau Holle) as they both appear in the twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany.

She is a kind of queen of fairies and of the creatures of the forest who, during this period of winter renewal (precisely during the "twelve nights"), abandons her underground kingdom and visits the houses of the mortals, which, for the occasion, they must keep that clean and swept to allow the Goddess to show up and to see so who worked hard during the year and who instead was a slacker.
It was used to serve an extra meal as an offering to the Goddess, which must be left uncovered so that she can serve herself, giving abundance and prosperity to the house in return. We can find, again, a very similar gesture nowadays, when people use to leave milk and biscuits to Santa Claus to have gifts in exchange.

In pre-Christian folklore, Perchta was represented while weaving the linen cloth (a metaphor connected to death and the spirit world), Children who died at an early age went to her as a grandmother, for this reason She was also called "The dark grandmother".

According to scholars, Frau Holle is a deity of Germanic origin, but originated long before the northern pantheon, it is even connected to Indo-European divinities of the Neolithic age.
It is not easy to trace the precise origin of the myth, but if we want to associate it with a more defined pantheon we can say that she is a deity that is very close to Hel, the dark cthonic goddess of the Norse world (to which we can also attribute the etymology of the name "hell" itself, which also derives the word "Hölle") and to Hertha, the northern goddess, personification of the primitive earth, linked to fertility and abundance.

As we have already explained in this article, most of the dark goddesses, representing the telluric world, are not considered with a negative meaning; in fact, they represent a kind of "gentle" death, directly related to transformation and improvement; in this case, a metaphor for the change of season, from winter death to spring rebirth.

♄Unornya

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