St. Nicholas Day and Krampus
December 6th marks the beginning of the Christmas season, with St. Nicholas Day. St. Nick is similar to our Santa Claus, wearing a read suit with a white beard. There is more religious symbolism here as he wears a red Bishop's hat and carries a staff. On the eve of St. Nicholas Day, children place a stocking and a plate outside their door. St. Nicholas then comes and give the good children candy and cookies. (there is a picture below of Noah and his St. Nicholas hat he made at school) St. Nicholas symbolizes good, while his counterpart, Krampus, symbolizes the devil. Children who were not good then receive lumps of coal from Krampus in their stockings. This is the big day for St. Nick and then he is done with. He is not in the malls and he does not deliver the presents that are opened on Christmas Eve. Ok, we all have heard of that, but here is the disturbing part. People dress up as Krampus and roam the streets looking for bad children to take to hell. They are dressed in these huge, hairy suits, with masks and horns. They carry chains to tie up the children and take them away. We did not leave the house that day because we did not want our kids to be terrified and have nightmares! I was in the grocery store that evening and one of these demon looking creatures came running through the store, growling and shaking his chains. Very strange. There is a picture at the bottom of what they look like. This is definitely a tradition that we will not miss.
Christmas Markets
One of the most exciting traditions that we have here is the Christmas Market, called the "Christkindelmarkt", meaning "Christ Child Market". The one here in Innsbruck is in the old part of down, by the Golden Roof. There are about 60 booths set up, with everything from home made crafts, bratwurst, cakes, spiced wine and anything else christmassy. They also have horse carriage rides and entertainment throughout the season. It is open from Nov. 23-Dec. 28, closed on Christmas Day. There is a picture at the bottom.
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is really the big day here, not Christmas Day. The 25th is still a national holiday and everyone is off work, but the big family stuff happens on the 24th. They wait to set up their trees until Christmas Eve. Needless to say, that was a shock for us. We are used to putting ours up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Because they put theirs up so late, they are not selling live trees until mid December, so we had to buy a fake tree. We have never been big fans of fake trees, but we are happy to have this one rather than nothing. Their Christmas Eve festivities include trimming the tree and then opening all the presents. Christmas day is a day to spend with family, eating a big meal.
Music and Movies
A few of the traditional Christmas songs that we sing in America are also sung here, "silent night", "angels we have heard on high", and "hark, the herald angels sing." that's about it, all the other songs that they sing this time of year, we have never heard before. And believe it or not, they have never heard, "Grandma got run over by a reindeer"! What a deprived people. The same goes for the movies. They have German language versions of "Christmas Vacation" and "it's a wonderful life", but no frosty, Rudolph, Charlie brown, Grinch or any of the other Christmas specials that we are used to seeing.
All those differences aside, we still share the only thing that matters - Christ came into the world to save us all. That's all we really need to share. Think of us while you are watching "A Christmas Story", sipping Egg Nog and singing "Frosty the Snowman". We will be thinking of you.
