For quite a while I have been promoting Krampus on Facebook. Now I am seeing that Krampus has become fairly popular. I had no idea that I had such an influence on popular culture. Today I found out about a rival for Krampus. Her name is Gryla, the Icelandic Christmas Witch. Gryla does all the nasty things like making pies out of naughty children. She also has a giant man-eating cat that eats anyone who isn’t wearing new clothes. And to add to this she has 13 mean sons called the “Yule Boys”. So it looks like Gryla could hold her own against Krampus. I am not a superstitious person. So the idea of Krampus and Gryla mostly seems somewhat humorous to me. And maybe an antidote to some of our over-sugary Christmas ideals. Still there might be some advantage to having mythological creatures for some to project their fears onto.
Some people seem to have a need to believe in demons. And maybe having figures like Krampus and Gryla is a good safety value. Otherwise superstitious people tend to demonize and therefore dehumanize other people. Once they do that it becomes possible to inflict any kind of harm on those you believe to be demons. So maybe it would be a good thing if the belief in beings like Krampus and Gryla let some people project their hated onto mythical beings. Anyway it seemed like a good idea when it first came to me.
One thing about Christmas that is difficult for me some years is how up to the day of Christmas things are turned up full volume. And then once Christmas day is past the volume is turned all the way down. One day it is full celebration mode and the next it is back to day to day life. The decorations lose their luster and some people even start turning off the lights the next day. And all the Christmas music falls silent. I have often found this to be jarring. Not so much this year. I never really got into the Christmas spirit this year so I am not missing something I did not feel much of. Still in many years I have advocated following the observation of the 12 days of Christmas. The season would wind down and end on The Feast of Epiphany on January 6. Most years I follow this and leave the Christmas lights on until Epiphany.
Today I am already on to thinking about a project for next year. That project is to make a book of some of my favorite photos. I can’t say exactly why I am doing that other than having a desire to have what may be a more permanent record of the images I have made than what digital storage provides. I’ll probably talk more about this as time moves on. So that is all for today.
I share similar feeling this year. No in-person worship during the Season of Advent and the secular/commercial Christmas season really throws me off.
As a child, prior to artificial trees, my family put up and decorated a fresh cut tree on Christmas Eve. We would tend it and hoped that it would safely last until Epiphany.
So I say yes to the 12 Days of Christmas. A gentle time, a time of peace. I have found a looped album of instrument Christmas hymns on YouTube and that I am playing during these 12 Days of Christmas.