the Winter Ones: Folkloric Figures of Winter, Yule, and Christmas

Yule has many customs and traditions, and those practices differ from region to region. One of my favorite aspects of Yule is the amount of figures associated with the festival – folk figures unique to the regions from which they hail. For many people, if you ask them about figures they associate with the Yule season, you’ll hear Father Christmas, Krampus, and maybe even a nod or two to Hans Trapp, but there are so many more Yule figures out there! In this post, we’ll meet a variety of these folk figures, and we’ll learn a bit about their Yule tales. It’s my hope that readers of this blog may find a new way of incorporating beliefs or customs of their ancestors or of their homelands (for our readers who are members of diasporic populations), and that, in doing so, their winter holidays may be even just a bit brighter for it. Now, shall we dive in? Who to meet first…

Ringing in Krampusnacht

Today, Krampus and his traditions are being revived in places like Germany, Austria, and Bavaria with annual events such as Krampuslauf and Austria’s Krampusnacht parade. For the most part, Krampus has been adopted into popular culture to the extent that even Americans may occasionally send or receive a Krampus-themed holiday card. But what are the true origins of this dark Christmastime figure? And how did he come to be the counterpart—or, in some places, companion—of Jolly Old St. Nick?

Holidays & Traditions, FolkloreThomasinDecember 5, 2019household spirits, spirits, folklore, slavic folklore, alpine folklore, christmas, yule, jol, krampus, santa, santa claus