Krampus Kometh
There is yet another ghastly tradition in central Europe around Christmas. While this tradition didn’t originate in the Czech Republic it is practiced and has steadily gained in popularity even since our first arrival here. It is a gruesome and revolting procession of demons known as the Krampus parade. The Krampus is the alpine-originating figure of the demon who visits children on Mikulas day, but is unleashed in all of its grit and extremity. This hyper-stylized and iconic demon gets celebrations and revelries all his own.
The parades are advertised extensively on flyers donning pentagrams and horror fonts. The actual event consists of hundreds of beastly demon goat creatures with bared teeth, menacing horns and wickedly bent faces parading through the night, blowing fire and waving pitchforks to the tune of death metal while they delight in scaring the amused but willing spectators. I suppose there must be some great irony that this is all part of the Advent season celebrations. As we’ve noted, the Czech lands are a place of such stark contrasts, it really only makes sense that in order to bring some balance to the unabashedly Christian-rooted festivities of advent, there must be some equally pagan and godless pageantry to match it.
While I’m admittedly bothered by the celebration of what can only rightly be described as an homage to evil and Satan, it does not surprise me. As much as the Advent markets and atmosphere usher into our presence the light and joy and whimsy of the hope of Christ’s coming, the Krampus parades remind us that there are more sinister spirits also at work.
Satan roams about seeking to outwit, snare, deceive, devour, sift, tempt, kill, destory, blind, murder, hinder, and snatch from us peace with God and our very soul if it were possible. Somehow we manage to relegate his activities to a neat and tidy box in our mind that we tuck neatly away, removed from present consideration and away from our speech. It is more comfortable this way. Yet there is some necessary reconciliation with reality achieved to be thrust face to face with the stark darkness of this evil before us and always around us. If only we saw evil so plainly as is manifested in the enactment of the Krampus parade. Would we then be more on guard, or more reliant on the power and protection of the Holy Spirit? In truth he more likely comes like a fallacious light; disarming us, luring us into an apathy that sets our own traps. As Christians, I fear we spend a bit too much of our lives in denial of real spiritual conflict. Like sheep, somehow selectively ignoring the carcasses of our bloodied and lifeless flockmates piling up around us, yet the idea of wolves would cause us too much anxiety and thus we cope by denying. This coping mechanism is indulgent at best and contemptible at its worst. There is an enemy of the soul that never rests! Nevertheless, we are thoroughly equipped to overcome this evil one. For the very one who created the universe with a word, lives and works and lends His power inside of us! May we rely fully on His sanctifying power in our hearts and lives as we proclaim the light of His goodness, dispelling darkness and binding the principalities that cannot restrain the potency of the gospel.
