Magic City Krampuslauf

Magic City Krampuslauf MCK: The Wild Hunt celebrates Yuletide folklore with pageantry, puppetry, music and street theater.

We’re a festival in Birmingham, AL celebrating krampus and other winter cryptids.

You may know it as Groundhog Day. But it is also called Candlemas, St. Brigid's Day, the Feast of Lights, Snowdrop Festi...
02/02/2026

You may know it as Groundhog Day. But it is also called Candlemas, St. Brigid's Day, the Feast of Lights, Snowdrop Festival, Oimelc, or Imbolg. It is officially MidWinter, the half-way point between Winter Soltice and Spring Equinox.

Considered a fire festival or cross-quarter celebration – this day is dedicated to the Goddess Brigid. She is recognized in Scottish and Irish traditions in charge of the forge (industry), poetry and knowledge, healing, sacred springs, childbirth (fertility), homesteads, textiles (weaving) and magic!

She is the Goddess of Spring and Summer. Her name "Bri" has the same root meaning as "bright" or shining. This places her parallel to Frau Berchta (Ber – meaning bright or shining). Brigid's counterpart in Celtic legend, the Cailleach is the wise crone of Winter. Another parallel.

There are many wells or sacred springs associated with Brigid and said to have healing properties. At many sites, clooties (Sc. "cloth") or coins or tokens are tied to nearby trees and left as prayers for healing or divine intervention.

Hen Galan (Old New Year) is a unique Welsh tradition, primarily in the Cwm Gwaun valley, celebrating New Year on January...
01/13/2026

Hen Galan (Old New Year) is a unique Welsh tradition, primarily in the Cwm Gwaun valley, celebrating New Year on January 13th, following the old Julian calendar, not the Gregorian one used today.

Celebrations involve children visiting homes singing for gifts (calennig). A calennig apple is a traditional Welsh New Year's gift (calennig means "New Year's gift") carried by children door-to-door for good luck, featuring an apple pierced with sticks, adorned with cloves, nuts, and evergreen sprigs, symbolizing prosperity for the new year.

Feasts with traditional food, and sometimes parading a decorated horse skull called Mari Lwyd, all stem from Britain's 1752 calendar change, when some communities observed older dates.

Щедрий вечір! / Shchedryi vechir (Blessings this evening!)Malanka (or Shchedryi Vechir) is a vibrant folk festival in Uk...
01/13/2026

Щедрий вечір! / Shchedryi vechir (Blessings this evening!)
Malanka (or Shchedryi Vechir) is a vibrant folk festival in Ukrainian and Northern Moldovan/Romanian communities. It is celebrated on January 13/14th, the eve of the Orthodox New Year (Old/Julian New Year). It blends pagan myths about Earth's rebirth with Christian traditions, featuring elaborate costumes, music, feasts, and house-to-house caroling by costumed groups (Malanka, Devil, Bear, Goat) to bring good fortune, symbolizing spring's return and warding off evil. The similarities to Krampus-like creatures are not lost on us.

Deeply rooted in pre-Christian Slavic mythology, telling of Malanka (Mother Earth's daughter) being captured by the Devil, causing winter; her release brings spring.

Groups go door-to-door singing shchedrivky (songs), performing skits, and wishing families health and prosperity.

Perchtentag Eve marks the night before the Feast of Perchta ( on January 6, a liminal threshold when the old year fully ...
01/05/2026

Perchtentag Eve marks the night before the Feast of Perchta ( on January 6, a liminal threshold when the old year fully loosens its grip and the new one steps forward. In Alpine folklore, this night belongs to fearsome Frau Perchta also known as Berchta, Bertha or Holda) a powerful winter goddess and ancestral spirit who walks between worlds.

Frau Perchta is the keeper of order and truth, both benevolent and fearsome. She rewards diligence, hospitality, and honest work with blessings. Deceit, laziness (unfinished weaving, unkempt households), and broken oaths are punished harshly by slitting their bellies open and stuffing them with straw and stones.

The name Perctha means hidden/dark/covered and Berctha means shining or to reveal. As such, she is often depicted as a terrifying crone with a goose foot or iron nose or beautiful white-robed woman respectively. She embodies winter’s dual nature: blessing and judgment, protection and consequence.

Her procession is called Perchtenlauf (akin to The Wild Hunt) in Austria and Bavaria, where people dressed as grotesque beasts (Perchten) with horns and bells like Krampus, run through the streets to scare away evil spirits and cold. There are also Schönperchten, beautiful or nice spirits.

LA BEFANA is a beloved Italian folklore figure, a witch-like old woman who flies on a broomstick to deliver gifts to chi...
01/05/2026

LA BEFANA is a beloved Italian folklore figure, a witch-like old woman who flies on a broomstick to deliver gifts to children on the night before Epiphany (January 5th). Her legend blends pagan ideas of winter renewal with Christian stories, depicting her as a kind but busy woman. The Three Wise Men (Magi) stopped at her cottage, asking her to join their journey to Bethlehem, but she declined, too busy with housework. She later changed her mind, filled a basket with gifts, and set off, but never found Jesus, so she continues her search, leaving presents for children instead. Good children receive candy, toys, and sweets; naughty children get coal (or sweet coal/black candies).

La Befana's has roots in older winter solstice traditions, like the Roman goddess Strenia, who brought New Year's gifts, represents winter or fertility, and with her broom sweeps away the old year. Her name comes from "Epifania," the Italian word for Epiphany (January 6th).

Celebrated across Italy, her visit marks the official close of the Christmas season.

TWELFTH NIGHT, the final night of the Christmas season (Jan 5th), blends pagan winter solstice traditions with Christian...
01/05/2026

TWELFTH NIGHT, the final night of the Christmas season (Jan 5th), blends pagan winter solstice traditions with Christian Epiphany, marking the end of dark winter festivities with rowdy revels, feasting, wassailing, Lord of Misrule games (like finding beans/peas in cake to crown a king/queen – we now associate with Carnival), cross-dressing, mumming, and Lord of Misrule traditions echoing Roman Saturnalia, celebrating the rebirth of light and a final joyous release before winter's harshness ends, with traditions like taking down greenery and apple orchard rituals.

Silvesterchlausen is an ancient, unique Swiss New Year's Eve tradition from Appenzell, Switzerland, where costumed figur...
01/01/2026

Silvesterchlausen is an ancient, unique Swiss New Year's Eve tradition from Appenzell, Switzerland, where costumed figures called Chläuse (masked mummers) roam from house to house on December 31st and January 13th (Julian calendar) in groups called Schuppel, ringing large bells and singing slow yodels to bring good fortune and ward off evil spirits. There are three types: "beautiful" (Schöne), "ugly" (Wüeschti), and "pretty-ugly" (Schö-Wüeschte), each with distinct ornate or natural costumes and elaborate headpieces, creating a mystical, loud, and visually striking procession.

A Strohbär (Straw Bear) is a traditional German folk figure, a costumed person in straw or brushwood, appearing in winte...
12/27/2025

A Strohbär (Straw Bear) is a traditional German folk figure, a costumed person in straw or brushwood, appearing in winter carnival festivities (like Fasching/carnival, sometimes occurring around Candlemas on February 2nd or Shrovetide.) to scare away winter and bring good luck, symbolizing fertility and old beliefs in human-bear connections, with performers built into heavy, cumbersome suits, often led by a handler (Treiber) through villages in a noisy parade.

Wren Day (Lá an Dreoilín), celebrated on Dec 26th in Ireland, is a vibrant folk tradition where costumed groups, the "Wr...
12/26/2025

Wren Day (Lá an Dreoilín), celebrated on Dec 26th in Ireland, is a vibrant folk tradition where costumed groups, the "Wren Boys," parade with a decorated pole (formerly a real wren, now usually a fake) to collect money, singing traditional songs and playing music for donations, with proceeds funding community dances or charities.

Evolving from pre-Christian rituals and folklore, the custom symbolizes fertility and the passing of the old year, featuring elaborate straw costumes and music, uniting communities in music, dance, and charity.

Boxing Day, celebrated on December 26th, is the day after Christmas, sharing its date with St. Stephen's Day, honoring t...
12/26/2025

Boxing Day, celebrated on December 26th, is the day after Christmas, sharing its date with St. Stephen's Day, honoring the first Christian martyr, both rooted in charity and giving.

While St. Stephen's Day focuses on church alms boxes and helping the poor (famously in the carol "Good King Wenceslas"), Boxing Day evolved from servants receiving "Christmas boxes" of gifts/money from employers and tradespeople giving tips.

“The wassail round in good brown bowls,Garnished with ribbons, blithely trowls.There the huge sirloin reeked: hard byPlu...
12/24/2025

“The wassail round in good brown bowls,
Garnished with ribbons, blithely trowls.
There the huge sirloin reeked: hard by
Plum-porridge stood, and Christmas-eye;
Nor failed old Scotland to produce,
At such high-tide, her savoury goose.
Then came the merry masquers in,
And carols roared with blithesome din
If unmelodious was the song,
It was a hearty note, and strong.
Who lists may in their mumming see
Traces of ancient mystery;
White shirts supplied the masquerade,
And smutted cheeks the visors made;
But, oh! what masquers, richly dight,
Can boast of bosoms half so light!
England was merry England, when
Old Christmas brought his sports again.
'Twas Christmas broached the mightiest ale;
'Twas Christmas told the merriest tale
A Christmas gambol oft could cheer
The poor man's heart through half the year.”

Sir Walter Scott in Marmiom, 1808

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Birmingham, AL

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