The Krampus And The Old, Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil

(Paperback)

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Description

The Krampus, a folkloric devil associated with St Nicholas in Alpine Austria and Germany, has been embraced by the counterculture and is lately skewing mainstream. The new Christmas he seems to embody is ironically closer to an ancient understanding of the holiday as a perilous, haunted season. In the Krampus' world, witches rule Christmas and saints can sometimes kill. As mainstream interest in Krampus is on the rise, this book is a brilliant, heavily-illustrated primer on this medieval, devil-like character.

Reviews

Ridenour (Offbeat Food) serves up an immensely accessible, well-researched history mixed in with his own personal journey tracing the Krampus, a Christmas devil with roots in Austrian and German folklore...Those interested in folklore, anthropology, history, counter-culture, and cosplay will enjoy this thorough assessment and its plethora of illustrations. Publisher's Weekly, October 2016 The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas: Roots and Rebirth of the Folkloric Devil is jam-packed with information on the history and meaning of the Krampus as well as scads of photos and art prints. The dozens of photos of celebrants of myriad regional-variant Yuletide festivals in bizarre and terrifying costumes is worth the price of admission alone. Award-winning designer Sean Tejaratchi has laid everything out gorgeously, augmenting Ridenours thoughtful analysis. I really cant recommend this highly enough. If you have any interest in the subject, this book is simply a must-have. Dangerous Minds

Author Bio

Al Ridenour: A native of Pasadena, California, Al Ridenour holds BAs in German and English literature, has worked as an author, journalist, animator, and artist, and has been a fixture in the West Coast underground art community since the mid-1990s. His Krampus research has taken him to the Austrian Alps and Munich, and brought him in contact with cultural anthropologists working in Salzburg and Vienna as well as dozens of members of contemporary European Krampus groups. In 2013, Ridenour co-founded Krampus Los Angeles, an organization thats made the city ground zero for American Krampusmania. Ridenour has translated and produced the only English-language version of 19th-century Krampus play, written articles, and lectured on the topic at the international Goethe-Institut and elsewhere, and exhibited his Krampus suits at the University of Southern Californias Doheny Museum